LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





DaDDSb37bbl 



• 




<>J_ *-'^ 



^oV" 






















o 
.o 

I « 
e 









<<*< 

.^1 







• ti 



' v.# ♦ 



w 












♦• **' 















>^ ^^ ■WW:' <^ \ •-^^»* •v' ^ *Jw^* 4.^ ! 



• '^. 4 






» *#>, 4 







-^^0^ 

^^^-<» 



& 




-oV^ ^' 



















^^^v<^ 












./.•^^'A 

















• *Pj^ A^ *- 



o,. *'Tvr« .A 



/\c:^;"'**_ 






^ 



000216 



000216 

MONUMENT 



TO 



THE MEMOM 



OF 



HENRY CLAY. 



BY A. H. CARRIER 



" He was a man, take bim for all in all, 
Wk shall not look npon his like again." 

"I WOITLD SATHEB BE BIGHT, THAK BE FBESIDEKT." 



PUBLISHED BY SOBSCRIPTION ONLY. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
DUANE RULISON, 33 SOUTH THIRD STREET. 

CINCINNATI: 

W. A. CLARKE, 119 WALNUT STREET 

1859. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 

\VM. A. CLARKE. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United SUtes, for the 
Southern District of Oiilo 







fl 

1 


6 

Copy. 






t 




/■•> 


ni 


STKREOTYPED BY 

D. HILLS & CO., 

141 Main St . . Cincinnati. 


1 3^ 

'-JUL 


6 ii 
1953 



PREFACE. 



The object of the present work is two-fold. First, 
to present in a condensed form a complete Life, and 
the most important Speeches of Henry Clay; and 
secondly, to collect, in a form adapted to their preser- 
vation, the Eulogies called forth by the death of the great 
statesman, together with an account of the Obsequies at- 
tending his burial. 

In respect to the first object, it may be said, that the 
field has already been occupied. In reply, we say that, 
although the works which have appeared from time to 
time, and especially the large volumes of Col ton, have 
given us nearly all the information which we can hope to 
obtain, whether in regard to the public or private life of 
Henry Clay, yet that they all, and especially those which 
we have designated, labor under the disadvantage of 
being too large and too costly for popular circulation. 

Now, such was the afiectionate admiration with which 
Heney Clay was regarded, while living, that we believe 
thousands will hail with satisfaction the appearance of a 
volume like this, in which it has been the aim to unite 

(iii) 



iv PREFACE. 

accuracy iu the statement of facts, with a clear delineation 
of the marked featm-es of Clay's public and private char- 
acter. The Biographic part claims, moreover, to be some- 
thing more thau a mere abridgment or compilation. It 
aspires to the dignity of an original portraiture. 

In the Selections from Clay's speeches, the rule observed 
was this ; to present the political opinions of the great 
leader in his own words, rendering him, thus, as far as 
possible, the author of his own political biography. To 
this end, extracts have been made to convey, not always 
so much an impression of the beauty and force of his 
diction, as of the peculiar sentiments which he enter- 
tained, the form iu which he held them, and the argu- 
ments with which he defended them. They have been 
arranged with express reference to their biographic value. 

In regard to the contents of the latter part of the 
volume, we need only say, that they can not but have a 
value while the memory of Henry Clay shall live, as in- 
dicating the mode in which a mighty nation gave expres- 
sion to its grief, at the loss of its favorite son. 

The volume then as a whole, we trust, will vindicate 
its pretensions, notwithstanding defects which, doubtless, 
exist in it, to be considered ti'uly a monument to the 
memory of Henry Clay. A. H. C. 

Paris, Kentucky March 1, 1857. 



CONTENTS. 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

CHAPTER I. 

What constitutes a true monument — The beat position for estimatin j % 
public man — Men have often a distinct private and public char- 
acter — Which their true character — Essentials of a perfect bio- 
graphy 9 

CHAPTER II. 

Birth and parentage — Death of his father — Its probable influence upon 
his after history — Significance of the incident of " the mill-boy of 
the Slashes " — ^His schooling — A foolish opinion, that genius does 
not need education — What education means — Whether Henky Clay, 
in this sense, was educated — He enters Mr. Denny's store — Obtains 
a situation in the clerk's office, at Richmond — Atti-acts the attention 
of Chancellor Wythe — Studies law with Attorney-General Brooke — 
Is admitted to the bar — Result of the influence upon him of such 
men as Wythe and Brooke — He engages in a rhetorical society — 
Inquiry, whether greatness is the oftspriug of circumstances — Clay 
moves to Kentucky 13 

CHAPTER III. 

Mr. Clay's modest opinion of himself — ^His competitors in Ken- 
tucky — The debating club — Kentucky people — Alien and Sedition 
Laws — Mr. Clay's success in law — His marriage — ^His election to 
the Legislature — To the Senate of the United States — Aaron Burr — 
Legislature of Kentucky again — Duel with Humphrey Marshall — 
His abilities in the State Legislature 21 

CHAPTER IV. 

Senate of the United States again — ^Policy of our country — Mr Clay 
advocates protection of domestic manufactures — Opposes a United 
States Bank — His activity in bringing about a war with England — 
Declaration of war 35 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

Early disasters of the war — Subsequent successes — Negotiations for 
peace — Ghent — Mr. Clay a Commissioner — Terms of the treaty — Mr. 
Clay visits England — ^United States Bank — Mr. Clay's change of 
views — What constitutes tnie Political Economy — Compensation 
bill — Clay is obliged to canvass his State — South American inde- 
pendence • 44 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mr. Clay is offered the post of Minister to Russia — Also, a place in 
the Cabinet — Advocates internal im]>rovements — Mr. Clay the 
father of a policy and a party — The character and services of the 
Whig party — Seminole war — The conduct of Jackson 54 

CHAPTER VII. 

Mr. Clay as a "pacificator" — Missouri desires admission — ^Violent 
agitation of slaveiy — The Compromise — The efforts of Mr. Clay. . . 60 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Candidates for the Presidency in 1824 — No election by the people — 
Mr. Clay's influence given to Mr. Adams — Charge of corruption — 
Mr. Kremer of Pennsylvania — Revival of the charge by Jackson — 
More trouble — A Duel with Randolph 66 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Tariff of 1824 — Question as to the expediency of a Protective 
tariff — Difference between theory and practice — Unpopularity of the 
protective system at the South — Nullification — Mr. Clay introduces 
his Compromise Tariff, and harmony is restored 7^ 

CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Clay is again defeated as a candidate for the Presidency — Clay 
and Jackson as rival leaders — Removal of the Deposits by the Presi- 
dent — Mr. Clay's indignant opposition — Resolution of censure — 
The Cherokees — Lavisli expenditure — 'The expunging resolution — 
The Snb-treasurj' bill — Dawning of better times 85 

CHAPTER XI. 

Enthusiasm of 1840 — Extra session of Congress — Death of Harrison — 
Defection of Tyler — Grief of Mr. Clay, at the subversion of his 
eherislied hopes — He advocates a tariff, designed for Protection — ■ 
liesi'rns iiis seal — Ilis fai'ewell to the Senate 97 



CONTENTS. VU 

CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Clay is again candidate for the Presidency, and suffers renewed 
defeat — Sorrow of his friends — War with Mexico— Acquisition of 
Territory — Embarrassing questions — Danger to the Union — Mr. 
Clay accepts a seat in the Senate — His heroic efforts to quiet the dis- 
traction of his country — It is the Chieftain's last battle — Disease 
advances — His death — His abilities as a statesman and orator — His 
characteristics as a man 116 



SPEECHES, ETC. 

On Domestic Manufactures. In the Senate of the United States, 
April G, 1810 131 

On Renewing the Charter of the First Bank of the United States. 
In the Senate of the United States, 1811 137 

On the United States Bank Question. Address to his Constituents 
at Lexington, June 3, 1816 153 

On Internal Improvement. In the House of Representatives, March 
13, 1818 1 61 

On the Greek Revolution. In the House of Representatives, January 
20, 1824 172 

On American Industry. In the House of Representatives, March 30 
and 31, 1824 181 

Address to La Fayette. House of Representatives, December 10, 1824. 205 
The American System, etc. Delivered at Cincinnati, August 3, 1830. 207 

On the Public Lands Bill. In the Senate of the United States Decem- 
ber 29, 1 835 239 

Petitions for the Abolition of Slavery. In the Senate of the United 
States, February 7, 1839 248 

On the Bank Veto. In reply to the Speech of Mr. Rives, of Virginia, 
on the Executive Message containing the President's Objection to 
the Bank Bill. In the Senate of the United States, August 19, 1841. 263 

On his Retirement to Private Life. At Lexington, Kentucky, June 
9, 1842 271 

On the Compromise Mkasurf.s, Reported bt the Committee of Thir- 
teen. In the Senatfj of the United States, May U, 1850 286 

Address to Kossuth. December, ItSl 317 



• •• 



TUl CONTENTS. 

EULOGIES, ETC. 

Eulogy of Joseph R. Underwood, of Kentucky 321 

Eulogy of Lewis Cass, of Michigan 330 

Eulogy of Robert M. T. Hunter, of Virginia 334 

Eulogy of John P. Hale, of New Hampshire 338 

Eulogy of Jeremiah Clemens, of Alabama 341 

Eulogy of James Cooper, of Pennsylvania 344 

Eulogy of William H. Seward, of New York 349 

Eulogy of George W. Jones, of Iowa 356 

Eulogy of Walter Brooke, of Mississippi 359 

Delivered in the United States Senate. 

Eulogy or John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky 363 

Eulogy of Presley Ewing, of Kentucky 371 

Eulogy of John S. Caskie. of Virginia 375 

Eulogy of Joseph R. Chandler, of Pennsylvania 377 

Eulogy of Thomas H. Bayly, of Virginia 382 

Eulogy of Abraham W. Venable, of North Carolina 385 

Eulogy of Solomon G. Haven, of New York state 391 

Eulogy of James Brooks, of New York city 393 

Eulogy of Charles J. Faulkner, of Virginia 396 

Eulogy of Samuel W. Parker, of Indiana 403 

Eulogy of Meredith P. Gentry, of Tennessee 406 

Eulogy of Richard J. Bowie, of Maryland 407 

Eulogy of Thomas Y. Walsh, of Maryland 409 

Delivered in the House of Representatives. 

Eulogy of John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky 413 

Delivered at Louisville, Kentucky, September 29, 1852. 

Eulogy of Henry W. Hilli ard. of Alabama 437 

Delivered before the Citizens of Montj^omery, Alabama, September, 1852. 

Eulogy of Alexander K. M'Clung, of Mississippi 470 

Delivered in the Hall of the House of Rep. of the State of Mississippi, Oct. 11, 1852. 

Obsequies 489 

Sermon by Rev. C. M. Butler, D. D 491 

Links by George D. Prentice 515 



THE 



LIFE OF HENEY CLAY, 



CnAPTER I, 



INTRODUCTORY. 



What constitutes a true monument— The best position for estimating a 
public man— Men have often a distinct private and public character— 
Which their true character— Essentials of a perfect biography. 

In any high sense, there is but one thing which men may call 
a monument. The skillfully-chiseled marble of the churchyard 
can be purchased, as well by money, as by merit. The can- 
vas, olowing with the semb'ance of life, is, how often, a monu- 
ment rather of the genius of the artist, than of the forgotten 
dead, whose features it perpetuates. Triumphal arches and 
pyramids even, however deeply and strongly they may be 
founded, change at last to ruinous heaps, or are intrusted, in 
vam, with the names of their builders and the records of tlie 
deeds which they commemorate. 

Nevertheless, greatness has its enduring monument. But 
that monument is erected by itself. Laid sometimes, indeed, in 
the blood and tears of suffering humanity, built up amid the 
sighs of lacerated bosoms, and crowned with the execrations of 
along posterity ; but sometimes based upon the noblest impulses 
of a°noble heart, erected every part of it to bless and adorn 



(9) 



10 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

humanity, and completed amid shouts of gratitude, or those 
more expressive tokens of aflfection — a nation's tears. 

When we speak then of a monument, commemorative of 
Henrt Clay, we mean not the marble which may cover his 
moldering remains, nor any imposing columns, which men may 
hereafter erect in their places of public resort. We mean, his 
own great character ; his matchless will ; the thoughts which he 
entertained ; the Avords which he spoke ; his large sagacity ; and 
that larger patriotism, which achieved for his country continued 
peace and prosperity — for himself, a place, like that of a house- 
hold idol, in every American heart. 

To the life of Henry Clay we must look for his monument. 
It is obvious, then, that his life should be so presented, as to 
make what we may call, its historic impression. 

The particular phase of mind, or social temper, which is best 
known to a great man's familiar friends, bears, often, no higher 
relation to his character in its completeness, than the peculiar 
forms of rock or foliage, which come, more immediately, under 
the observation of the dwellers at the foot of the mountain, bear 
to the dimensions and outline of the whole mass. Wlien gi-eai 
objects are to be estimated, nearness of position can not always be 
accounted a favorable circumstance. The work of the biographer, 
resembles, somewhat, that of the engraver, who must, with a few 
bold and discriminating lines, present what is individual and 
peculiar in the features to be delineated ; or perhaps, better yet, 
we may compare it with those woi'ks of the sculptor which are 
to stand at a distance, or upon an elevation. The finer details 
are left comparatively untouched, while the peculiar outlines are 
exec ited strongly. 

The biographer must present, as nearly as possible, the im- 
pression which the gi'eatness that he describes made upon its 
cwn age, but it must be ever with this discrimination, he must 
present each striking action or characteristic, not in the light of 
its tempoi-ary importance, but of its historic permanence and 
value. Tliis, to a cotemporary biographer, is a task of no small 
difficully. Heneo, i( ofien liappens, that greatness receives its 
best csiinia'r \<'ai>: afici- men arc familiar with it, except in ils 



THE LIFE OF HENKT CLAY. 11 

results. The partiality of aflfection, the contempt, which is said 
to spring up in little minds from familiarity, and the prejudices 
of enmity, are alike fetal to the truth of biography. 

The household friends of Clay ; the farmers and shopkeepers, 
with whom he had frequent dealings ; and the enemies, who 
persecuted him with their slanders, would, severally, be unqual- 
ified to diaw with correctness his portrait. Yet, it can not be 
denied, that the biographer, who lives near the time of the 
character Avhich he describes, possesses important advantages 
over those who come after him. The many little incidents, 
illustrative of character, which live their short life in the mem- 
ory of friends, serve often, as a sufficient clue to mysteries of 
public conduct, which the subsequent historian might seek in 
vain to decipher. Tilings which might otherwise be accounted 
trifles, are, in this way, not unfrequently invested with no small 
significance. Private details may be regarded as scattered rays, 
valuable in proportion to the quantity of light which they can 
throw upon the main object; this, in historical characters, 
being not the private but the public and official conduct. It 
would, indeed, do great injustice to many, perhaps to most of 
those who have figured largely in the world's estimation, to 
depict them, mainly as they have appeared in social life. Men 
often bear what Avould seem two distinct characters — so distinct 
as even to amount to an apparent contradiction. Tlie question 
with the biographer, in sucli a case, must be, which will give 
the most correct impression ? which represents, most truly, the 
effective character? Charles II sought, in disguise, the ac- 
quaintance of the author of Hudibras, thinking that he should 
find him a most facetious fellow ; but so great was the king's dis- 
appointment, that he was led to pronounce him a stupid block- 
head, and to declare it to be impossible, that he could ever have 
written so witty a book. Tradition affirms, of Sliakspeare, that 
after obtaining a competency from his dramatic works, he settled 
down quietly upon a farm, varying the monotony of his life by 
an occasional visit to the nearest market town, to execute small 
commissions for himself and his neighbors. Wliat idea of the 
immurial dramatist should we now possess, had it been left to 



12 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

one of those neighbors to transmit his personal impressions of 
the "chiel amang " them ! 

The elegant Addison, and the genial Lamb, are said to have 
been reserved in general society. In such cases, it is evident 
which phase of character must be presented, unless injustice 
would be done. 

Yet, even more, in the case of statesmen, must historic faith- 
fulness be regarded, because they leave no such oft-perused 
records of themselves, from which to correct mistaken impressions. 

The highest form of character which a man has ever devel- 
oped, even if that display of power has been but short and 
occasional, is a more just index of what he is, and of what he 
can do, than his intermediate periods, though disproportionately 
long, of mediocrity and indolence. For in this only does he 
vindicate his title to greatness, and render himself an object of 
possible interest to posterity. Keeping this fact in view, it will 
be evident, that the more clearly the character described is made 
to stand out in its individuality, the more perfectly the reader is 
made to feel a direct approach to it, the better will the ends of 
biography be answered. 

The day has forever passed by, in which history may be a 
dry catalogue of facts. Men put away contemptuously the 
skeleton, and demand the action and glow of life. This has 
evidently widened the province of biography, for to convey an 
adequate impression of a man's effective force, the history of 
his time must be displayed, the circumstances which made him 
what he was, and, those more hidden things, the probable 
motives of his conduct. 

Where so much is implied, the reader will be considerate, 
it is hoped, if he encounter occasional mistakes and misap- 
prehensions. 




O 

W 

o 

■< 



-is- 



C II A P T E K 1 1 . 

Cirth and parentage — Death of his father — Its probable influence upon 
his after iiistory — Signiticauce of the incident of "llie mill-boy of the 
Slashes" — His schooling — A foolish opinion, that genius does not need 
education^What education means — Whether Hexry Clay, in this sense, 
was educated — He enters Mr. Denny's stoiY — Obtains a situation in the 
clerk's office, at Kichnioiid — Attracts ihe attention of ChanCL-llor Wythe — 
Studies law wiili Attorney — General Brooke — Is admitted to the bar — 
Result of the influence upon him of such men as Wythe and Brooke — He 
engages in a rhetorical society — Inquiry, whether greatness is the off- 
spring of circumstances — Clay moves to Kentucky. 

Virginia, if asked, like the Roman matron, to display her 
jewels, could point, with an equal maternal pride, to her many 
illustrious sons. It is not her least occasion for boasting that 
she o-ave biilh to Henry Clax. 

The future statesman was born April 12th, 1777, in Hanover 
County, in a neighborhood called the Slashes. His parentage 
may be denominated humble. His father was a Baptist clergy- 
man, deriving from his salary, doubtless, but a bare subsistence 
for a somewhat numerous family. Of the incidents of his 
earliest years, we have no record of any kind. It would not be 
difficult to draw an imaginarj' picture, which we might safely 
pronounce true in some of its features. We have no reason, 
and no occasion to suppose that his infancy was distinguished 
by any thing unusual. It is a fertile fancy, which goes back to 
the cradle, to find indications of the coming greatness. 

Yet, we are not to disregard the providences, which direct 
our course of life, even from its outset. Events which seem 
the merest accidents, often hold in their keeping our whole 
subsequent history. 

The death of Henry Clay's father, while the son was yet but 
four years of age, may have been to him such an event The 



14 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

burden of so young a family, thrown upon the mother, would 
cause her to rear her children with a view to their self-depend- 
ence, and prompt her to seek for them, as early as possible, 
situations in which they might make their own subsistence. 

In fact, one of the earliest known incidents of Henry Clay's 
life, the source of no small enthusiasm, and of a name which 
became the rallying cry of more than one political contest — the 
story of the mill-boy of the Slashes — indicates that we are to 
look thus far back, if we would penetrate to the hidden springs 
of his mighty self-reliance. 

The frequent pilgrimages to " Mrs. Darricott's mill, upon Pa- 
munkey River," by the awkward lad astride of the mea^bag, 
upon the pony, guided by its rope bridle, probably indicated to 
the neighbors nothing more than filial faithfulness ; yet, all that 
time, though unconsciously even to himself, the seeds were sow- 
ing, the ripened harvest of which was gathering in when he 
took his seat, as presiding officer, in the legislative halls of his 
country ; when further on, his tones commanded respect on that 
floor, where to be accorded, it is necessary, in a measure, to be 
commanded ; and when, most of all, his words, now of entreaty, 
now of warning, and anon, as if of command, were heard plead- 
ing, first with the South, and again with the North, until both 
laid by their anger, appeased by the magic of his earnestness 
and his eloquence. 

It may seem fanciful to some, to go thus far back for " the 
hidings of his power." But let it be considered, that we take 
the incident, not so much for what it is in itself as for the evi- 
dence which it gives, of an early, manly grapple with real labor, 
and real difficulties. We discern in it the beyinnino- of a habit — 
and what significance does not that word convey — a habit of 
self-dependence, ready to ripen into every fruit of excellence. 
To magnify too highly the effect of such early influences is 
hardly possible. 

Viewed in this light, we venture the assertion, that there was 
a deeper reason for selecting the incident of the mill-boy of the 
Slashes, to construct from it a name for the nation's idol, than 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 15 

was comprehended by the thousands who made it their ralh'ing 
shout. 

Of scliool instruction, Henry Clay, apparently, received 
scarcely any thing. Mention is made of three years' tuition in a 
log school-house, under the care of Peter Deacon, a convivial 
Englishman. His whole curriculum, as they say in universities, 
amounted only to reading, writing, and "arithmetic, as far as 
Practice." Our fathers had not then bestirred themselves in 
the matter of common schools. But, had the advantages of 
the period been ten-fold what they were, there is occasion to 
doiibt whether, in the destitute condition of bis mother, Henrt 
Clay would have been able greatly to avail himself of them. 
He at least, we may believe, would not have been in the way of 
becoming what is termed, "an elegant classic." We never can 
be brought to depreciate the advantages of a thorough education, 
but all honor, Ave say, to the man who, despite of the want of it, 
can make his way to " the high places of the earth." 

A foolish opinion is extensively prevalent, that greatness does 
not need, or that it disdains, the usual toilsome course to excel- 
lence. Indolent school-boys and dissipated college lads are 
prone to quote the example of Henrv Clat, of Patrick Henry, 
and of Daniel Webster even, to justify their idleness, and to 
prove, by a curious process of logic, tliat they are thus giving 
indications of genius. The great men, whose names they are 
guilty of thus taking in vain, would be the last to give their 
voices in confirmation of such a conclusion. The silly error has 
grown out of a misapprehension of what is implied in the term 
education. It is generally thought to mean an infusing into the 
mind of a certain amount of information, classical, mathemati- 
cal, technical, or historical. But, to think thus, is to confound 
the end with the means. Every kind of information existent 
may have a tendency to educate, but of itself, can not constitute 
the work. That man is educated who, by whatever means, has 
made his powers available, and he is best educated, who can 
make his talents effective to their highest extent. 

Now it is usually thought, and doubtless wisely, that a severe 



16 ' THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

course of classical and mathematical training will best effect this 
result — will, in other words, render a man most perfectly the 
master of his powers. In saying this, we include the expansion 
of mind, which naturally comes from a wide range of informa- 
tion, and the habitual, manly exercise of thought. If now, any 
other course than that of the university, will be productive of 
equal results, then that process, whatever its nature, may be 
called education. While, on the other hand, if the curriculum 
of the university has failed in this, its legitimate end, the failure 
is total so far as the term education can be applied to it. 

Viewing the matter in this light, it is more than doubtful, 
whether Henry Clay can be said to have been destitute of early 
education. Although he was not, in the ordinary sen.se, a stu- 
dent, during the fourteen years of his life preceding his en- 
trance as a clerk into Mr. Richard Denny's store, in Richmond, 
nor, we may add, at any time subsequent, yet in that effective- 
ness, which we have shown to be implied in education, he might 
all the time have been making I'apid proficiency. He, we may 
at least believe, judging from his experiences as a mill-boy, was 
learning those piactical lessons which would prove invaluable 
to him, when afierward called upon to undertake larger work, 
and encounter real difficulties. He was trainino- his faculties for 
that prompt decision, in Avhich the most admirable and learned 
theorizers are oflen deficient, but which is always indispensable 
to the man of business, and most of all, to the politician and 
statesman. We do not know but that Providence, in its dispo- 
sition of the early life of Henry Clay, and of so many others 
who have come up from the humble ranks of society, arranged 
every thing with an obvious reference to the highest effective- 
ness of their after career. Their history is, at all events, no 
proclamation hung out to indolence and stupidity. 

Henry Clay did not long remain behind Mr. Denny's counter, ' 
tying packages, and compounding simples for sick children. 
His new stepfather. Captain Watkins, had somewhat higher 
aspirations for him. Through the influence of a friend, he ob- 
tained for liim a situation in the office of Peter Tinsley, Esq., 
clerk of the High Court of Cliaiicery. His awkward manners 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 17 

and his tall form, set off, not to the best advantage, by a suit of 
homespun, excited at first, the ridicule of his fellow-clerks, but 
upon better acquaintance their laughter was made to yield to 
sincere lespect for his abilities and worth. 

His fortunes can not be thought to have advanced, as yet, 
very high, though certainly, at this point they begin to mend. 
He is, for the first time, definitely upon the road which is to 
conduct him to renown. Between the mill-boy of the Slashes 
or the compounder of drugs, and the leader upon either floor 
of Congress, ^ye can discover no particular relation, but the path 
from an office of law to the same high position, it is more easy to 
determine. The entrance into Mr. Tinsley's office we may con- 
sider the turning-point of his early history. 

His advantages here were doubtless not very great, but he 
attracted the attention of Chancellor Wythe, and in that fact 
found new and wider prospects open before him. The chancel- 
lor eniiaced his services as an amanuensis, and, finding in him 
evidences of an inquiring mind, gave him access to his library. 
Daily familiarity with a dignified and cultivated man, like Chan- 
cellor Wythe, even if it never took the intimate form of com- 
panionship, could not fail to exert a powerful influence upon the 
young and plastic mind of Clay ; while the turn that his reading 
would receive, from the judicious counsel of one so capable of 
advising, could not fail to be to him of infinite service ; the 
more so, because, not having enjoyed the advantages of early 
systematic training, his curiosity might have led him into many 
fruitless literary explorations. Hexry Clay remained with the 
chancellor four years — years more pregnant with future results, 
we may believe, than any equal period of his previous life. 

From this scene of his labors, he passed, at the instance of 
the chancellor, to the office of Robert Brooke, Esq., attoi-ney- 
general of Virginia. With this gentleman he pursued the study 
of law, during one year, at the end of which time he was ad- 
mitted to practice in the Virginia Court of Appeals. He was 
now twenty years of age, and there can be no doubt, that his in- 
timate association during several preceding years with the most 
courtly gentlemen of Virginia, had gone far toward producing 
2 



18 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

in the awkward youtli, the dig-ni(y and gracefulness for which 
he Avas pre-eminent as a man ; toAvard disciplining his powers for 
efi'eclive action, and infusing into his mind those elevated habits 
of thouo-ht, Avhich constituted him the far-seeing and commanding 
statesman. 

It is a fact worth relating in this connection, that he was active 
in the formation of a rhetorical society, which embraced some 
of the most refined and promising of the young men of Rich- 
mond, and that he was, if tradition may be relied upon, one of 
the most marked and brilliant of its members. 

The early history of eloquent men is a curious commentary 
upon the oft-repeated assertion, that greatness is the offspring of 
circumstances. We can not leave the history of Henry Clay, 
where poverty and the struggle against disadvantages are about 
to o-ive place, by rapid giadations, to competence and a nation's 
applause, without applying the test to Avhat, we believe to be, in 
some measure a fallacy. 

Men as great may, possibly, have lived in this country, as 
Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Hamilton, and Jefferson, entirely un- 
known to fame, but we are not prepared to believe it. These 
men might, under some circumstances, have themselves re- 
mained unknown, but we are not quite prepared to believe that. 
Circumstances, we doubt not, have prodigious weight, but at 
the best they furnish only the training and the field for exercise. 
They fail in what is most indispensable of all — they do not 
create the man. Otherwise, every emergency would find, not 
merely its few worthy leaders, but would produce a universal 
crop of greatness. 

Let us see, for instance, how much Henry Clay owed to out- 
ward circumstances in the forming period of his life. He was 
born, then, in an humble lot — a condition from which it is said 
the most of greatness has sprung, because, more than any other, 
it tends to develop hardiness of character. Luxury, it is rightly 
said, enervates. Great advantages are often not valued. The 
want of them is the spur to activity. 

To this it may be answered, that it is not remarkable that a 
humble station should have furnished the most numerous in- 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 19 

stances of greatness. Tlie doctrine of probabilities would have 
indicated thus much, since by far the larger portion of the 
human race are in humble circumstances. To the rest of the 
argument, it may be said, if the humble birth and childhood of 
Clay were the sources of his strength, why are not the unnum- 
bered thousands of like instances fruitful in such results. 

We would not, in this, be thought guilty of unsaying what 
we have urged in the course of this chapter, in favor of practical 
and severe trainino-. While we have magnified its value, we 
trust that we have done it with sufficient discrimination to be 
free from the cliarge of self-refutation. 

A writer,* at once elegant and poAverful, has expressed so 
forcibly the truth upon which we are insisting, that we can 
not forbear quoting a paragraph: "The greatness or small- 
ness of a man is, in the most conclusive sense, determined 
for him at his birth, as strictly as it is determined for a fruit, 
whether it is to be a currant or an apricot. Education, favor- 
able circumstances, resolution and industry, can do much ; 
in a certain sense they do every thing ; that is to say, they 
determine whether the poor apricot shall fall in the form of a 
green bead, blighted by an east wind, shall be trodden under 
foot, or whether it shall expand into tender pride, and sweet 
brightness of golden velvet. But, apricot out of currant, great 
man out of small, did never yet art or effort make, and in a 
general way, men have their excellence nearly fixed for them 
when they are born ; a litile cramped and frost-bitten on one 
side, a little sunburnt and fortune-spotted on the other, they 
reach, between good and evil chances, such size and' taste as 
generally belong to the men of their caliber, and the small in 
their serviceable bunches, the great in their golden isolation, 
have, these no cause for regret, nor those for disdain." 

Greatness, in truth, is indigenous to no soil. If born in the 
soul, it is safe to assert, that it Avill come out under every variety 
of training and circumstance, subject, perhaps, only to this con- 
dition, that its degree of development will depend, in a measure, 



* RusKiN, Modern Painters, Vol. iii. 



20 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

upon its op])Oi'tunities for action. Look at Fox, the spoiled 
child of a luxurious father, rising, despite luxury, despite gam- 
ing, despite dissoluteness, into "the most brilliant and accom- 
plished debater," in the language of Burke, "the world ever 
saw." See Pitt, from his infancy trained with reference to his 
future statesmanship, and declaiming, when a child, from a 
chair, to the guests at his father's dinner table. See Burke, 
coming up with the ordinary advantages of good classical train- 
ing, and distancing them all. See Chatham, bred in luxury, 
and whom, more than any other Clay resembles, bearing every 
thmg down by the resistless storm of his eloquence ; and then turn 
to Patrick Henry, sitting indolently upon a barrel-head in his 
grocery, and looking, although with no meaningless stare, upon 
the rude sports of his customers ; to our Clay, not the least 
among them, spending his earlier years in almost menial employ- 
ment. The commentary upon greatness furnished by such 
varied circumstances may not, it would seem, be mistaken. 

We have now traced the history of Clay, so far as it is iden- 
tified with Virginia. It was the place only of his birth and 
training. With his license in his pocket, he seeks fortune and 
fame in a new home, though, as it will appear, with modest ex- 
pectations in respect to both. His history, except that portion 
of it which belongs to his whole country, is henceforward, 
identified with Kentucky. 



&I 



CHAPTER III. 

Mb. Clay's modest opinion of himself — ^His competitors in Kentucky — 
The debating club — Kentucky people — Alien and Sedition Laws — Mr. 
Clay's success in law — His marriage — His election to the Legislature — 
To the Senate of the United States — Aaron Burr — Legislature of Ken- 
tucky again — Duel with Humphrey Marshall — His abilities in the State 
Legislature. 

In one of his discriminating essays, Hazlitt has discussed the 
question : " Whether genius is conscious of its powers ?" " No 
really great man," he asserts, "ever thought himself so. The 
idea of greatness in the mind answers but ill to our knowledge, 
or to our ignorance of ourselves. No man is truly himself, but 
in the idea which others entertain of him. The mind, as well 
as the eye, 'sees not itself but by reflection from some other 
thing.' " 

The opinion which Henrt Clay entertained, concerning his 
own abilities and probable success, seems to corroborate the 
assertion of Hazlitt. In llie course of a speech, at a banquet 
given him by his friends, June, 1842, upon occasion of his 
retirement to private life, he says : 

" I obtained a license to practice the profession of law, from 
the judges of the Court of Appeals of Vir<2"!nia, and established 
myself in Lexington, in 1797, without patrr-«c, without the favor 
or countenance of the great or opulent, wituout the means of 
paying my weekly board, and in the midst of a bar uncommonly 
distinguished by eminent members. 

"I remember how comfortable I thought I should be, if I 
could make one hundred pounds, Virginia money, per year, and 
with what delight I received the first fifteen shillings fee. My 
hopes were more than realized. I immediately rushed into a 
successful and' lucrative practice." 



4 

22 'hik life of henry clay. 

This brief allusion, by Henry Clay himself, to his "start in 
life," serves the purpose of a complete and graphic picture. He 
has left the Old Dominion behind, with its stirring and classic 
memories. He has left the polished society of Richmond, in 
which remembrance of his early struggles with poverty might 
have imposed upon him an irksome constraint. He has left the 
learned bar, toward which, as having furnished him with his 
patrons and instructors, he might have looked with a deference 
too great for his future independence of character and mind. 
He has turned his steps, like so many of more aspiring ambition 
since that day, to the Great West. Whatever his dreams of 
success, they are yet too dim to be told to others, to be whispered 
even to himself. He has not yet felt within the kindling of that 
inspiration, which is to fascinate and subdue the hearts of his 
countrymen. He has not yet waked up to the consciousness, 
that he is possessed of any unusual power. He feels himself to 
be only plain Henry Clay, but just now deputy clerk, amanu- 
ensis, and law student. A bare support, in his new home, is 
the hight of his expectations. 

His modesty seems even to have kept him from asking for 
admission to the Fayette bar, until he had given several months' 
additional attention to his legal studies. Though he had left 
the refinements of Virginia, he found that he was by no means 
beyond the pale of civilization, and that his opponents were to be 
somethinp- more tlian backwoodsmen. It is doubtful whether the 
bar of Fayette county was ever more ably represented. Lex- 
ington had appropriated to itself all that was most choice and 
vio-orous in the talent of the State. Breckenridge, and Nicholas, 
and Brown, and Hughes, and Murray, were men from whom 
the palm of superiority could be wrested by no competitor, 
without a strugole. 

They were also established in business and reputation, when 
the new and diffident candidate for wealtli and honor entered the 
lists ao-ainst them. But self-distrust still held him back. He 

O 

could not persuade himself yet, to measure his strength with 
theirs. What he was reluctant to do, was, however, at last forced 
upon him, as it were, by accident. He had become a member 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 23 

of a debating club, but had never ventured to speak upon any 
question. One night, it is related, as the debate was about to 
close, he whispered to a neighbor, that something more, he 
thought, might be said upon the subject. The remark was 
eagerly caught at, as affording an opportunity for calling out the 
young stranger, and ascertaining what "stuff he was made of." 
The president delayed to put the question, and from every side 
the -call was made for " Clay." Half surprised into the discus- 
sion, and yet half eager for it, the young orator arose, blushing 
and confused. The first words which he stammered out were, 
" Gentlemen of the jury." This unpropitious beginning deep- 
ened his embarrassment. Again he exclaimed, " Gentlemen of 
the jury !" But his hearers were considerate. Their courtesy 
restored his composure. His ideas quickly became clear and 
well expressed. His enthusiasm became roused. An ingenuous 
pride, to thoroughly redeem his opening effort from the appear- 
ance of failure, which it first assumed, quickened his intellect 
and fired his emotions. Whatever credit, for abilities, his silent 
good sense might have acquired for him before, his success 
now took his audience by storm. Their surprise, delight and 
applause were unbounded. That was an auspicious evening to 
him. Thenceforward, he might regard his fortune as made. 
The expectations of the community were to be allies upon his 
side, and he himself had awaked to a consciousness of his 
power. The days when "fifteen shillings fees " were a source 
of delight, will now rush away to give place to a successful and 
lucrative pi'actice. 

To evei-y class of mind, the gay and grave, the learned and 
the ignorant, there is something fascinating in the eloquence of 
highly wrought feeling. It arises, in part, from a love of 
excitement, natural to every human breast, and, in part, from 
admiration of a high display of power ; that power seeming 
especially wonderful, which can, at will, alternately excite and 
subdue the varied feelings of a large assembly. 

But perhaps none give themselves up so entirely to its fasci- 
nation, as do the unlearned and uncritical. Unaccustomed to 
dissemble their emotions, impulsiveness becomes their ruling 



24 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

habit; and, with something of the simphcity of children, they 
yield themselves to the power of the orator. Eloquence is ' 
regarded by ihem, with more enthusiasm, perhaps, than even 
military exploits, by which, notoriously, they are dazzled ; and 
the orator who can sway them at his will, is more applauded 
than the successful general. 

Such minds demand fervor, and even vehemence, in their 
speakers; and can, more easily, forgive a little infelicity of 
reasoning than tameness in sentiment or manner. 

Among such people, most fortunately, Henry Clay found 
himself when the consciousness of his power, as an orator, first 
flashed upon him. In the town of his residence, many of the 
citizens were highly intelligent and refined; but "the country 
people," as they were termed, — those who constituted the mass 
of the population, — were distinguished by the characteristics of 
pioneer life ; a resolute independence ; thorough practical com- 
mon sense ; the utmost frankness of feeling and manners, and 
an unbounded admiration for rousing oratory. 

A better field, for the development of young Clay's peculiar 
eloquence, can not be imagined. By his early life, he had been 
taught better how to sympathize with, and to approach, his 
sturdy auditors, than he could have been by any instruction 
of the schools. His style of eloquence could not admit of 
being cramped. Its very success was dependent upon its 
hearty boldness. An audience of learned critics would have 
frozen the fountains of his inspiration. A careful regard to the 
nice structure of every sentence, and a perpetual dread lest, by 
some unlucky expression, he should offend "ears polite," would 
have effectually sealed the lips of One, like him, sensitively 
- conscious of early disadvantages. 

But the honest yeomanry and hardy hunters, who were to 
constitute the mass of his heavers, cared little about the nice 
balance of sentences, if so be those sentences conveyed senti- 
ments which they could relish, in language which they could 
not mistake, and by tones and gestures which struck home to 
their hearts. 

Occasions, likewise, favored the budding reptitation of the 



TIIK LIFE OF llENilY CLAY. 25 

youno- orator. Demagogism was from the first abhorrent to 
his soul. However much he might seek to work upon the sym- 
pathies of his susceptible audiences, he neA^er prostituted his 
powers to artifice, nor appealed to local and unworthy prejudices. 
He delighted in expaiiating upon those cherished principles of 
freedom, for which our country had but just triumphantly 
fouo-ht. In such themes, he could indulge his loftiest declama- 
tion, without oflense to his high sense of honor. 

The promulgation of the "Alien and Sedition Laws," gave 
him his chosen opportunity. Those laws had their origin in a 
panic, which had seized upon many, lest our institutions should 
be overthrown by foreign emissaries, and the authority of our 
officers Aveakened, or destroyed, by the unbounded license of 
the press. They gave to the President authority to send into 
exile any person, whom he might deem dangerous to the well 
being of the Government, and guarded from assault, by special 
statute, the private and public character of those intrusted with 
responsible offices. 

In endeavoring to correct, Avhat was undoubtedly an evil, the 
Government was betrayed into an oflense still more unpardon- 
able. Freedom of personal movements and liberty of the press, 
are matters too sacred for governmental interference, except in 
cases of the most unusual and unquestionable necessity. The 
people considered their rights outraged. The disturbances of 
the Old World, the revolutionary proceedings of France, the 
turbulence of agents fi'om abroad, the scurrility of the writers 
of pamphlets and neAvspapers, did not, in their opinion, consti- 
tute a necessity sufficient to Avarrant a scrutiny, like that of the 
Inquisition, and edicts which savored of despotism. 

The laws met Avith A^ehement opposition. They could bs 
popular in no part of a country, which was enjoying its first 
exultant consciousness of freedom. In Kentucky, they were 
especially odious. The habits of a pioneer people are abhorrent 
to every thing like constraint, whether in moA^ements or in 
speech. They grow up in the enjoyment of almost unbounded 
license in respect to both. The people of Fayette called out 
their orators, to give utterance to their indignation. 



26 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

After listening to the eloquence of one of their favorite and 
experienced leaders, with one accord and with great clamor, 
they shouted for Clat. Warm with the zeal of youth, ambi- 
tious for distinction, eagSr for the excitement of debate, unaf- 
fectedly indignant at the insult to freedom and to freemen, the 
young patriot responded to the call. To him the subject appeared, 
not in the light of an opportunity for successful demagogism, it 
was invested with the sacredness of liberty itself. The "inalien- 
able rights," for which we had sent out a " declaration " to the 
world, and which, during eight years, we had defended at the 
point of the bayonet, were imperiled by our own rulers, upheld 
in their conduct by the deluded slaves of party zeal. The name 
Federalist, itself, was to himself and to many of his hearers an 
odious term. In the minds of not a few, it was associated with 
a tendency toward a concentration of power, ultimately a mon- 
archy, and possibly a despotism. 

Having such sentiments to work with, and such an audience 
to work upon, it is not wonderful that the enthusiastic eloquence 
of the youthful orator, roused the feelings of his hearers to 
Almost a frenzy of excitement. 

Those who were to follow in defense of the hated laws, except, 
for the interposition of Clay, and the friend who had preceded 
him, would not have been permitted a hearing. As it was, they 
were suffered to proceed but a little way in their argument, 
before the people rushed upon them to hurl them down. With 
difficulty they were saved from personal indignity. 

Among such a people, an orator like Clay could not fail of 
"a successful and lucrative practice." It is related of Erskine, 
that, after his fii'St speech, he had placed in his hand retaining 
fees from thirty eminent lawyers. The services of Henry Clay, 
as we have abundant evidence, were considered at once equally 
desirable in every important suit. 

His quickness to unravel the knotty points of a case, which 
had puzzled for a day or two the wits of his associate counsel, 
and his wonderful success in criminal causes, have come down 
to us with something, doubtless, of the exaggeration of tradi- 
tion. Yet that his influence over a jury was, in no small degree, 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 27 

dano-erous to the full attainment of justice, we may -well believe, 
when we remember the fascination which, upon every subject, 
attended his eloquence. 

It is related of him with much enthusiasm, that, at a trial for 
capital oft'ense, in Harrison county, in which two Germans, 
father and son, stood indicted for a brutal murder, he succeeded, 
first, in obtaining a verdict of homicide, and afterward, an arrest 
of judgment, resulting in their acquittal. 

In another instance, though the evidence seemed demonstra" 
live against his client, he prevailed so far as to divide the jury ; 
and, upon a second trial, to procure a discharge, by setting up 
the remarkable plea, that no man could have his life twice im- 
periled for the same offense, and that, to continue the prosecu- 
tion, would constitute such a case. 

To carry his point, he found it necessary to back his plea by 
such a trial of his personal consequence, as never could succeed 
except Avhere great popularity had given occasion for the utmost 
self-confidence ; demurring at the objections of the court, to his 
peculiar construction of the case, and gathering up his docu- 
ments, he was about to leave the court-room. The ruse, — for 
such we must consider it, — succeeded, and he was urged to 
come back and conduct the trial in his own way. The result, 
as we might expect, was the discharge of the prisoner. 

Such instances, whatever value they may or may not have, in 
establishing Henry Clay's character with the reader, as an 
accurate and thorough lawyer, certainly prove that his eloquence 
was of a very effective order, and that his personal influence, 
thus early, was almost unbounded. 

While prosperity was thus attending Henry Clay in his 
public career, he was adding to his private happiness, by bring- 
ino- around himself the comforts of a home. With social affec- 
tions keenly active, he early sought that high sympathy and 
companionsliip which can be found only in marriage. 

In April, 1799, when he was but twenty-two years of age, he 
was imited in marriau'e to Lucretia Hart, the dauofhter of Col, 
Hart, one of the most influential and hospitable citizens of Lex- 
ina^ton. Two years afierward we find him, in a l(;!ler to Jndi>-e 



28 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

Brooke of Virginia, speaking of his home, with a settled gravity 
and that peculiar air of consequence, which seem especially to 
befit the father of a family. We can not forbear giving an 
extract from this letter, since it not only indicates the feeling we 
have described, but also the high-toned generosity of his char- 
acter, and the eagerness with which, at the earliest opportunity, 
he offers a return for past favors. 

After speaking of some business matters, he adds : " What 
has become of the son of my much regretted friend, your 
brother ? I feel myself under obligations of gratitude to the 
father, which I should be happy of having an opportunity of 
discharging to the son. What is the progress he has made in 
his education ? We have, in this place, a university in a very 
flourishing condition. Could you not spare him to me, in this 
country, for two or three years ? I live at a short distance from 
the buildings, have a small family, and need not add that, from 
the cheapness of living in this country, his expense to me would 
be extremely inconsivlerable. We have, too, a distant hope of 
getting Mr. Madison, from 'William and Mary,' to take the man- 
agement of our seminary. Be pleased to let me hear from you 
on this subject." 

For domestic life, we may believe, judging from his tempera- 
ment, he had a keen relish. But of domestic life he was not 
destined to partake largely. His talents forbade his living, in 
any exclusive sense, to himself. He was needed by his country. 
Before it had been possible for him to build up any great or last- 
ing character as a lawyer, he was called to enter upon what 
became the special business of his life, — the toils of statesman- 
ship. Without any solicitation of his own, and wdiile he was 
absent among the mountains for bis health, his name was 
brouo-ht forward in connection with a seat in the State Leo-isla- 
ture. His competitors were popular ; he started late in tlie 
canvass, but his personal presence at the critical juncture, — his 
remarkable tact, as displayed in his quick reply to the hunters, 
when, without any practice in rifle-shooting, he claimed to be an 
excellent shot, and, favoi'ed by chance, won the hearts of the 
rudf backwoodsinfin by planting the bullet in the center of the 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 29 

mark, — and, most of call, the fascination of his eloquence over- 
came all obstacles, and insured for him a complete triumph. 
His first legislative exploits pertained to matters of local inteiest, 
and were conducted with much sparring and direct personal 
encounter ; a mode of debate sure to elicit the applause of a rude 
and popularly constituted assembly. 

The contest between himself and a member of the name of 
Grundy, constituted the principal interest of his first session. 
It was doubtless that kind of intellectual gladiatorship, which 
young and ambitious minds delight in when they first awake to 
the consciousness of considerable power; confident and impetu- 
ous, they are ready to measure swords with every opponent, and 
covet the admiration of the multitude who cheer them on. 

But Clay soon vindicated his supremacy, and feeling himself 
facile princeps, was, thenceforward, better situated to advance 
business and devise measures for the true welfare of the State. 
For, until a man's position is established, his attention will be 
absorbed by his own claims, and his views will likewise lack the 
weight which comes from confirmed personal influence. 

The degree of self-confidence and personal consideration, to 
which he soon attained, as well as the peculiar class of minds 
with which he had to deal, may be seen in the eft'ect which a 
few jocular remarks from him produced, when it was proposed 
to remove the seat of government. Clay was in favor of the 
removal, and in ridicule of the peculiar position of Frankfort, 
which is in a deep valley, surrounded by abrupt hills, compared 
it first to an inverted hat, and afterward chanoino- the figure, 
called it nature's penitentiary, pointing to a ragged and now 
scampering group in the galleries, as a specimen of the prisoners. 
The witticism proved as effective as a logical argument ; the 
point was carried, and Frankfort, if any other place could have 
been agreed upon, would have ceased to be the capital. It is 
right to say that Clat, some years afterward, made honorable 
amends by apologizing for this injustice to a very beautiful 
town. 

The nobleness of his character and his dauntless manner, at 
this time, are illustrated by his espousing the cause of a humble 



30 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

innkeeper, who could find no one else willing to undertake it, 
against the United Stales Attorney, Daviess, from wliom he 
had received insolent treatment, and so warmly as to receive 
at a pause in the trial, a note of iniimiilation, but which Clay 
persisted in disi-egarding so far as to provoke from the oflended 
attorney a challenge. The duel was prevented, however, by the 
interposition of friends. 

Having once set out in the career of politics, there was to be 
for Clay no turning back. General Adair of Kentucky, resigned 
his seat in the United States Senate, and Clay, though but 
twenty-nine years of age, was selected to fill the vacancy. As 
he was about setting out on his journey to Washington, he 
I'eceived the following letter from Aaron Burr : 

" Dear Sir — Information has this morning been given me, 
that Mr. Daviess has recommenced his prosecution and inquiry. 
I must entreat your professional aid in this business. It would 
be disagreeable to me to form a new connection, and various 
considerations will, it is hoped, induce you, even at some per- 
sonal inconvenience, to acquiesce in my request. I shall, how- 
ever, insist on making a liberal pecuniary compensation. The 
delay of your journey to Washington, for a few days, can not 
be very material. No business is done in Congress until after 
new year. I pray you to repair to Frankfort on receipt of this." 

Public opinion was at this time greatly divided, as to Burr's 
innocence of any treasonable intentions. By many the prosecu- 
tion against him was regarded as the offspring of party malice. 
Burr, himself, was cai'eful to lemove any scruples whicli busy 
rumor mio-ht have created in the mind of Clay. He addi-essed 
him a second note, in which he pleads innocence in the following 
unqualified terms : 

" Sir — I have no design, nor have I taken any measuie, to 
promote a dissolution of the Union, or a separation of any one 
or more Slates from the residue. I have neither published a 
line on the subject, nor has any one through my agency or wich 



rilE LIFK OF llENKY CLAY, 31 

my knowledge. I have no design to intermeddle with the 
Government, or to disturb the tranquillity of the United States, 
or of its Territories, or any part of them. I have neither issued, 
nor si<'-ned, nor promised a commission to any person, for any 
purpose. I do not own a musket, nor a bayonet, nor any single 
article of military stores, nor does any person for me, by my 
ft-uthority, or with my knowledge. 

" My views have been fully explained to, and approved by 
several of the principal officers of Government, and, I believe, 
are well understood by the administration, and seen by it with 
comolacency. They are such as every man of honor, and every 
good citizen, must approve. 

" Considering the high station you now fill in our national 
councils, I have thought these explanations proper, as well to 
counteract the chimerical tales, which malevolent persons have 
so industriously circulated, as to satisfy you that you have not 
espoused the cause of a man unfriendly to the laws, the Govern- 
ment, or the interests of his country." 

Clay w^as deceived by the apparent candor of Burr, and the 
heartiness of his disavowal. So pressing an application to a 
young lawyer, from one wlio had filled a highly distinguished 
place in the regards of his country, could not have been other- 
wise than flattering. He undertook the defense, but as the grand 
jury returned the indictment, accompanied with a refusal to con- 
eider it a true bill, he was absolved from any active part in the 
matter. Upon repairing to Washington he was shown evidence, 
which satisfied him, of the criminal intentions of Burr. 

The endeavor was made to fasten odium upon Clay, because 
of the part which he had assumed. In this attempt party malig- 
nity to some extent succeeded ; but to us, who, at a distance, 
can look impartially upon the occurrences of that day, the eager 
endeavor of Burr to establish his innocence in the eyes of the 
young Senator, is all the vindication of his own integrity, which 
Clay could wish. 

We follow Clay now to his seat in the Senate of the United 
States. It is not to be supposed that, occupying it for but one 



32 THE LIFE OF IlKNKY ULAY. 

session, and feeling conscious of being one of the youngest 
membei's, he took a remarkably active part in the deliberations 
of that body. He found occasion, however, to advocate various 
plans for internal improvement. 

His maiden speech was upon the construction of a bridge over 
the Potomac ; a matter of local interest, but involving a question 
of constitutional power. He brought to the subject the results 
of extensive investigation, and his speech upon the occasion was 
esteemed equal to the fame which had preceded him.' 

His efforts were likewise directed to the construction of a 
canal in his own Slate, and improvements in the navigation of 
the Ohio River, — harbingers of the policy to which he was after- 
ward committed, and by which no small degree of his great 
subsequent popularity was secured. 

Upon returning to his friends, he was again elected to a seat 
in the Stale Legislature, and was made Speaker of its lower 
House. That he filled this office with dignity, it can not be 
necessary to assert, while his signal ability in a still higher 
station of tlie same character, is still a matter of memory. 

In 1808, his friends, from a desire to match him against his 
principal political opponent, Humplirey Marshall, saw fit not to 
re-elect him Speaker. The debates assumed an acrimonious 
turn. Some offensive remarks, by Maishall, upon a resolution 
introduced by Clay, to the eflfect that all the members should, 
for the sake of encouraging home industry, clothe themselves in 
garments of domestic manufixcture, called forth a challenge from 
the latter. The parties met, exchanged two or three shots, wei'e 
both slightly wounded, when, by the interfei'ence of their 
seconds, they were prevented from pursuing any further their 
murderous diversion. 

One efibrt of Henky Clay, during his last connection with 
the Slate Legislature, deserves to be recorded forever to his 
(Credit. It was his* valiant and successful opposition, almost 
single-handed, to a measure which prejudice and demagogism 
would have carried through, to the everlasting discredit of Ken- 
tucky. An unqualified hatred to England led to the strange 
proposal, that the decisions of her courts should never be cited 



TlIK J.IFIO OF IIENKY CLAY. 33 

as precedents, nor allowed any weight at any Kentucky bar, 
Illiberalily could not well go further. Yet so great was the 
unenlightened zeal of the Legislature, that its purpose was 
defeated only by the most strenuous efforts of Clay, exerted 
through personal influence, through argument, and through the 
seductive power of his eloquence. 

Henry Clay's career, in the limited sphere of a State Legisla 
ture, we are uoay to see draw to a close. His talents are for 
wider fields and loftier displays. The skill which he has 
acquired, is to be transferred permanently to that arena where 
he can accomplish most for his country and for his race. But 
while we dismiss him from his narrower stage, we must show, 
from the testimony of one who knew how he there acquitted 
himself, that his success was not the result of accident ; that by 
no "chance hits," and by no fitful efforts in these earlier years 
of discipline, was laid the foundation of the brilliant, useful, and 
endurini'- structure of his future fame. 

"He appears," says the writer alluded to, "to have been the 
pervading spirit of the whole body. He never came to the 
debates without the knowledge necessary to the perfect elucida- 
tion of his subject, and he always had the power of making his 
knowledge so practical, and lighting it up so brightly with the 
fire of eloquence, and the living soul of intellect, that, without 
resorting to the arts of insidiousness, he could generally control 
the movements of the Legislature at will. His was not an 

O 

undtie influence ; it was the simple ascendency of mind over 
mind. The bills, which originated with him, instead of being 
characterized by the eccentricities and ambitious innovations 
which are too often visible in the course of young men of 
genius, suddenly elevated to power and influence, were remark- 
able only for their plain common sense, and their tendency to 
advance the o-eneral interests of the Slate. Though he carried 
his plans into effect by the aid of the magical incantations of 
the orator, he always conceived them with the coolness and 
discretion of a philosopher. No subject was so great as (o baffle 
his powers, — none so minute as to elude them. He could liandle 
the telescope and the miuroscupe with equal skill. In him, the 



34: THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

liauglity demagogues of the Legislature found an antagonist, 
wlio never failed to foil them in their bold projects, and the 
intriguers of lower degree were baffled with equal certainty, 
whenever they attempted to get any petty measure through the 
House for their own personal gratification, or that of their 
friends. The people, therefore, justly regarded him as emphati- 
5ally their own." 



CHAPTER IT. 

Senate of the United States again — Policy of our countiy — Mr. Clay 
advocates protection of domestic manufactures — Opposes a United 
States Bank — His activity in bringing about a war "with England — 
Declaration of war. 

Mr. Clat entered the Senate of the United States a second 
time, in the winter of 1809-10. So short had been the political 
history of our country, that no great systems, either of foreign 
or of domestic policy, had been established. The wants and 
capabilities of the country were hardly known. The course of 
legislation had been rather a series of experiments than any 
thing stable and definite. The political chaiacter of the nation 
was undergoing a formative process. The problem, whether 
Federal or Democratic principles should obtain the predomin- 
ance, was hastening to a solution. Upon the result of this 
important question, hung suspended the future distinctive policy 
of the nation. 

That problem, to all intents and purposes, was solved by the 
administration of Jefferson. The Democratic element then o-ained 
a predominance, which, except in a few fluctuations, it has ever 
since retained. Yet, while the prevailing spirit of the country 
may be characterized as the eager, restless, aggressive spirit of 
a Democracy, it is not of such a Democracy as floated before the 
vision of the early champions of State rights. 

Federalism has not been annihilated, but absorbed. The 
country to-day, while it is more intensely democratic than it was 
fifty years ago, is also ruled more upon federal principles. 
While every year makes us a fiercer Democracy, every year also 
consolidates the power of the Central Government. Except in the 
instance of one or two Slates, the feeling of State pride is merging 

(35) 



36 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

more and more into patriolic pride for the Union. Sectional 
causes, indeed, disturb the surface of this feeling and check its 
growth ; yet the evidence that it exists may be found in any 
casual newspaper, published in any part of the country. Where 
one paragraph is given, — always excepting the newspapers of 
South Carolina, — to the glorification of the State, ten paragraphs 
may be found of exultant pride, which, in case of threatened 
war, rises into bravado, in the extent, the resources, the power 
of "The Great American people." 

The country has, in fact, become a consolidated Democracy. 
This direction of its development, as we have intimated, was 
efiected largely by the influence of Jefferson. Its career in that 
direction was but just inaugurated when Clay, in IBIO, a second 
time entered the Senate. 

The country was ready, and waiting for the minds which were 
to mark out and fix its subsequent policy. Of those minds 
Clay's was eminently one. At the very outset, not as though yet 
he saw the way clearly, but rather as though he beheld "men 
as trees'' walking," he advocated what afterward grew into the 
American Protective System. 

The immediate occasion of his first argument upon the subject 
was a bill, to the effect that, in procuring cordage, sail-cloths and 
ordinary munitions of war, preference, if possible, should be 
given to articles of domestic manufacture. His views in the 
immediate instance were acted upon, and a most favorable im- 
pulse, especially considering the necessity for home industry 
which the war quickly following entailed, was given to the 
manufacturing interests of the country. 

The interest of this, his first reported speech, is greatly hight- 
ened by the fact, that the policy therein advocated was a favorite 
one with him through life ; one to which he devoted the most 
study ; upon which he expended the most ingenuity, and battled 
for with the most persistency. 

His arguments, except in comprehensiveness, were similar to 
those which he afterward adduced when the special cliampion 
of that policy; arguments which will always have different 
deo-rees of weight, according to tlie side which individuals 



THE LIITK OF IIKNUY OLAV. 37 

espouse of Uiat much dis})ated question, the propriety of a 
protective laritt- 

In the winter session of 1810-1 1, the Senate was called upon 
to decide the question whether the charter of the United States 
Bank should be renewed. The Bank was incorporated in 1791, 
and its chai-ter would expire by limitation, in 1811. 

Mr. Clay believed, with the mass of the Republican party, 
that the Constitution made no provision for granting such a 
charter. The Legislature of his State had also laid him under 
instructions to oppose it. He therefore assailed the Bank with 
all his power of logic, and all the keenness of his sarcasm. 
He directed his blows, especially, against what he supposed its 
weakest side, — its lack of constitutional warrant. 

As the United States Bank became afterward a favorite 
measure with him, his change of views gave occasion to 
his opponents to charge him with gross inconsistency. But 
pitiable, indeed, would be the lot of erring humanity, if a 
man must retain unchanged to his dying hour, the opinions 
which he may have embraced in the immaturity, and with the 
haste of youth. The highest definition of consistency is not 
that which limits it to perseverance in a given course, under all 
circumstances, and against every degree of conviction to the 
contrary. In such a quality. Clay might feel no shame co plead 
deficient. 

But if the question should be in regard to consistency, even 
in its general acceptation, — namely, an undeviating pursuit of the 
same specific ends, — political history, we are confident, can pre- 
sent few more strikino- instances of it than Clay's. In old ao-e 
he was seen fighting still under the same banner which he him- 
self had raised in the exultant strength of his youth. His last 
efforts were in behalf of a domestic policy and the integrity of 
the Union, and so likewise were his first. The sturdy Demo- 
cratic principles with which he set out in his political career, he 
retamed through life, — holding them, not alone during the sun- 
shine of popular favor, but battling for them in darkness and in 
trial, against ilie opposiiion of iron-willed enemies, and the 
treacherv of f"-ilso fiieiid.s. ^ 



38 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

He himself referred to this single change of views many years 
afterward, when there could have been no occasion for insin- 
cerity, in the following words : 

" I never, but once, changed my opinion on any great measure 
of national policy, or any great principle of construction of the 
National Constitution. In early life, on deliberate consideration, 
I adopted the principles of interpreting the Federal Constitution, 
which had been so ably developed and enforced by Mr. Madison, 
in his memorable report to the Virginia Legislature, and to 
them, as I understood them, I have constantly adhered. Upon 
the question coming up in the Senate of the United States, to 
re-charter the first Bank of the United Slates, thirty years ago, 
I opposed the re-charter, upon convictions which I honestly 
entertained. The experience of the war which shortly followed, 
the condition into which the currency of the country was thrown 
without a bank, and, I may now add, later and more disastrous 
experience, convinced me I was wrong. I publicly stated to my 
constituents, in a speech in Lexington (that which I made in 
the House of Representatives of the United States not having 
been reported), my reasons for that change, and they are 
preserved in the archives of the country. I appeal to that 
record ; and I am willing to be judged, now and hereafter, by 
their validity." 

Mr. Clay's term in the Senate, which was but for two years, 
having ended in 1811, he returned to his home at Lexington. 
But Kentucky could not dispense with services so fitted for 
public life and legislation. He was immediately elected to a seat 
in the House of Representatives, — and so conspicuous had he 
already become by his talents, and so great was his popularity, 
tliat, upon the first ballot at the opening of the session, he was 
made Speaker of that body, — an honor never accorded before 
to one whose person was a stranger in its halls, and whese voice 
was untried in its debates. 

A proud moment must that have been to the young Kentucky 
Congressman, when his merit, owing nothing to birth, nothing 
to early advantages, and but little to outward circumstances of 
any kind, was at ducc recognized wiiii liomago, by those who 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 39 

could boast of all ; and when the applause, which greeted the 
announcement of his election, revealed the strong force of enthu- 
siastic friends who would rally, at any time, to his support, as 
tliey had now rallied to render his. entrance among them a 
triumph. 

He might appreciate the more highly the compliment, because 
the session promised to be a most important and stirring one. 
Europe was in arms, and the convulsion of one continent threat- 
ened to sliake the stability of the other. War was teaching that 
lesson which it inculcates more emphatically than any other 
mentor, — the mutual dependence of tlie different families of the 
human race ; that one member can not suff"er without all the 
other members sufferinij with it. 

The Berlin and Milan decrees of Napoleon, and the orders in 
Council of England, had subjected our commerce to most ruinous 
restrictions. All the important ports of Europe were declared in 
a stale of blockade. Our trading vessels were constantly exposed 
to confiscation. The only choice left to our merchants was to 
permit their ships to rot idly at their wharves, or to engage them 
in commerce by stealth, and at the imminent risk of seizure. 

Troubles had been deepening, too, for years. Our young 
country was regarded by England with hatred and contempt. 
Her officers, in foreign service, omitted no opportunity of dis- 
playing toward us their insolence. One of our own vessels of 
war, without just provocation, had been fired into, almost Avithin 
our own waters. 

No indignity, however, excited such universal anger as the 
course of Britisli officers, in forcibly entering our ships, and, 
under the pretext of searching for their fugitive sailors, impress- 
ino- our seamen. Aecordinij; to a statement in Congress, seven 
thousand of our countrymen were, at the moment of the lepoit, 
forcibly detained in her service. 

All remonstran(;e proved ineffectual. Lord Castlereaoh treated 
Contemptuously the idea that England would lelinquish her right 
of search. To Mr. Russel, our Charge d' Affaires, to whom was 
intrusted a negotiation with the British Government, he stated, in 
language which he desired not to be mistaken : 



40 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

"There has evidently been much misapprehension on this 
subject ; an erroneous belief entertained, that an arrangement 
in regard to it has been nearer an accomplishment than the facts 
will warrant. Even our friends in Congress, — I mean those who 
are opposed to going to war with us, — have been so confident in 
this mistake, that they have ascribed the failure of such an 
arrangement solelj^ to the misconduct of the American Govern- 
ment. This error probably originated with Mr. King, for, being 
much esteemed here, and always well received by persons in 
power, he seems to have misconstrued their readiness to listen to 
his representations, and their warm professions of a disposition 
to remove the complaints of America in relation to impressment, 
into a supposed conviction, on their part, of the propriety of 
adopting the plan which he had proposed." 

There was, therefore, throughout the country, an indignant 
cry for war. In Congress the belligerent spirit was pre- 
dominant. Still, the party in opposition was far enough from 
being insignificant. Nearly all the Federalists Avere opposed to 
a rupture with England. Of the Slate Rights party, Randolph, 
one of the ablest, exerted his influence, sometimes by logic, 
sometimes b}' rhetoric, and sometimes by ridicule, unceasingly 
against it. In his eyes, a war with England was an alliance 
with Napoleon, whom, from his rapacious spirit of conquest, he 
designated "the aich enemy of mankind." The capture of 
Canada, one of the professed objects of the war, he sneered at 
as preposterous. He deprecated the fostering of a military and 
aggressive spirit, which the existence of an army and a navy 
would be sure to promote. 

The session was, therefore, a stormy one. The country did 
not ride into war with all sails set and colors flying, and by 
the breath of only prospering gales. Notwithstanding the preva- 
lent liatred to England, and the war sentiment predominant in 
Congress, it required the logic of Calhoun, and the martial 
enthusiasm of Clay, to nerve their fellow-members into a war- 
like atlilude. 

In the President's message of November 4, 1011, the causes 
of complaint against Eiigiand were reviewed. The message was 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 41 

referred to a committee, of which Peter B. Porter of New York, 
was chaii-raan. Tlie resohitions which they reported were un- 
mistakably warlike. Still, as the formation of committees was 
under the control of the Speaker, those resolutions could be 
regarded as expressing the sentiments of only a party. 

The Senate transmitted to the House, on the thirty-first of 
December, a bill providing for the raising of twenty-five thou- 
sand troops. Clay, leaving the chair, made it the occasion for 
a most enthusiastic speech in favor of war. He had committed 
himself to that policy, and it was never his characteristic to do 
things by halves. High spirited and impetuous, he could no 
more brook an insult to his country than to himself. He viewed 
the aspect of att'airs with the partiality of the advocate, rather 
than with the wily coolness of the diplomatist. He was desirous 
to precipitate matters. What he did, he would do boldly. Since 
he had given his voice for war, he would have every preparation 
made to constitute it a successful war. In this he proved him- 
self worthy to be a leader. A large class of men, after deciding 
upon a course of conduct, — such a course, even, as from its very 
nature demands promptness and intrepidity, — display a miserable 
infirmity of will, and signally fail, because what they desire they 
have not the courage to perform. 

It was not so with Clay. Whatever his judgment or his feel- 
ings dictated, his will shrank not from executing. A part of 
those who were committed in favor of war, trembled at the p'X)S- 
pect of so large a standing army as twenty-five thousand men. 
To order such a levy, they seemed to feel, was to pledge them- 
selves to all the unknown horrors of war. That such was its 
bearing and intention, Clay unhesitatingly avowed. He justly 
contended, that it was "too great for peace, but," as he feared, 
" too small for war." If his country was to engage with Eng- 
land, he would have it enter the contest equipped, not for defeat, 
but for victory. 

On the twenty-second of January, a report was made, by a 
committee to whom the matter had been intrusted, in favor of 
increasing the navy. To this, also. Clay gave his earnest sup- 
port. His plan contemplated not what was extravagant and 
4 



43 THE LIFE OF HENKY CLAY. 

impracticable. He deluded not himself nor the House with tlie 
idea that a naval force might be created, able to cope in numbers 
with the proud marine of England. But he demanded that such 
additions should be made as might effectually protect our coast- 
ing trade, and our biany ports, from the insolence of every 
passing cruiser. The Navy bill, like that of tlie Army Appro- 
priation, was adopted by a large majority. This was upon the 
twenty-ninth of January, 1812. 

Upon the first day of April, the President sent a secret mes- 
sage to Congress, recommending an embargo for sixty aays. 
This was acknowledged by the war party to be preparatory to an 
appeal to arms. 

Mr. Rjindolph rose, and, with much solemnity, exclaimed : ''I 
am so impressed with the importance of the subject, and the 
solemnity of the occasion, that I can not be silent. Sir, we are 
now in conclave ; tlie eyes of the surrounding world are not 
upon us ; we are shut up here from the light of heaven, but the 
eyes of God are upon us. He knows the spirit of our minds. 
Shall we deliberate upon this subject with the spirit of sobriety 
and candor, or with that spirit which has too often characterized 
our discussions upon occasions like the present ? We ought to 
realize that we are in the presence of that God who knows our 
thouii'hts and motives, and to whom we must hereafter render 
an account for the deeds done in the body. I hope, sir, the 
spirit of party, and every improper passion, will be exorcised ; 
that our hearts may be as pure and clean as falls to the lot of 
human nature. 

" I will appeal to the sobriety and reflection of the House, and 
ask what new cause of war for the last twelve months ? What new 
cause of embargo within that period ? The aflair of Chesapeake 
is settled, — no new principle interpolated into the laws of nations. 
I suppose every man of candor and sober reflection will ask, why 
we did not go to war twelve months ago ? Oi', will it be said 
we ought to make up by our promptness now, for our slowness 
then ? It is not generally wise to dive into futurity, but it is wise 
to profit by experience, altliough it may be unpleasant. I feel 
much concerned to have the bill on the table for one hour." 



THE LIFE OF ilE^JRY CLAY. 43 

The Federal party, throug-h some of their representatives, as- 
sumed a tone still more deprecatory. Josiah Quincey of Massa- 
chusetts, openly avowed that he had sent dispatches to eastern 
merchants, that their vessels might leave port before the embargo 
should take eflect. "We did it," he said, " to escape inlo the 
jaws of the British Lion and of the French Tiger, which are 
places of repose, of joy, and delight, when compared with the 
grasp and fang of this hyena embargo. Look now upon the river 
below Alexandria, and you will see the sailors towing down their 
vessels, as from a pestilence, against wind and tide, anxious to 
escape from a country which would destroy instead of preserv- 
ing them. I object to it, because it is no efficient preparation ; 
because it is not a progress toward honorable war, but a subter- 
fuge from the question. If we must perish, let us perish by 
any hand except our own." 

From these extracts it can be seen that the opposition was 
wanting neither in strength nor clamor. Clay rested uneasily 
in his seat as Speaker, under such arguments and appeals. His 
spirit longed to be in the thickest of the fight. Yielding the 
chair to others, he often descended to the floor of the House to 
confront audacity with equal boldness — and to answer, the ques- 
tion, "What cause is there for war?" by depicting the com- 
merce of his country ruined, her honor insulted, her name a by- 
word and term of derision abroad. 

Randolph had said, in the course of the speech from which we 
have quoted, " I am confident in the declaration, Mr. Chairman, that 
this (the embargo) is not a measure of the Executive ; but that it 
is engendered by an extensive excitement upon the Executive." 

Madison, indeed, seems to have labored under an infirmity of 
purpose. Although he had committed himself so far as to lay 
the embargo, it was not until he had been waited upon by Clay 
in an informal deputation, and had caught the contagion of his 
enthusiasm, that he submitted the messag-e to Cong-ress which 
was to result in an appeal to arms. Both Houses of Congress 
took decisive action upon the subject on the eighteenth of June, 
and on the nineteenth, by proclamaiion of the President, war 
existed between the United States and Entrland. 



CHAPTEK y. 

E&rly disasters of the war — Subsequent successes — ^Negotiations for 
peace — Ghent — Mr. Clay a Commissioner — Tenns of the treaty — Mr. 
Clay visits England — United States Bank — Mr. Clay's change of views — 
What constitutes true Political Economy — Compensation bill — Clay is 
obliged to canvass his State — South American independence. 

The credit or the blame of the second war with England, 
whichever it be, must unquestionably fall mainly to the share 
of Clay. For an appeal to arms he had battled with the ardor 
of a patriot, and with a vehemence inspired by opposition. 

The war opened disastrously. General Hull surrendered his 
army at Detroit. A series of similar reverses followed in its 
train. The depression occasioned by such calamities is vividly 
conveyed in the following letter from General Harrison to 
Mr. Clay : 

"I write to you, ray dear sir, amid a thousand interruptions; 
and I do it solely for the purpose of showing you, that you are 
present to my recollection, under circumstances that would 
almost justify a suspension of every private feeling. The 
rumored disasters upon our northwestern frontier, are now 
ascertained to be correct. The important point of Mackinac 
was surrendered without an effort ; an army captured at Detroit, 
after receiving three shots from a distant battery of the enemy 
(and from the range of which it was easy to retire), a fort 
[Chicago], in the midst of hostile tribes of Indians, ordered to 
be evacuated, and the garrison slaughtered ; the numerous 
north wf-stern tribes of Indians (with the exception of two feeble 
ones), in arms against us, is the distressing picture which pre- 
sents itself to view in this part of the country. 

(44) 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 45 

" To remedy all these misfortunes, I have'an army competent 
in numbers, and in spirit equal to any that Greece or Rome ever 
boasted of, but destitute of artillery, of many necessary equip- 
ments, and absolutely ignorant of every military evolution ; nor 
have I but a single individual capable of assisting me in train- 
ing them." 

I his gloomy state of affairs, however, soon passed away. 
England, exultant, especially upon her own chosen element, the 
sea, was made to lower her tone of insolent superiority. The 
Constituiion encountered the Guerriere, and captured it, after a 
short, most decisive and brilliant enaao-ement. An Eno-lish 
statesman was constrained to declare upon the floor of Parlia- 
ment, that the spell of invincibility, in which their marine had 
gloried, was efifectually broken. 

Upon the lakes, America gained renewed laurels. The spirit 
of the people rose with the return of the tide of success. 
Washington, to the mortification of the country, was taken and 
sacked, but upon the north-western frontier, Scott was retrievino- 
the fortunes of his Government, and vindicating the bravery of 
its people. 

Meanwhile, Russia offered her interposition to bring about 
peace. The United States accepted her offer, but England 
expressed a preference for a negotiation between commissioners, 
appointed severally b}' the belligerent parties. 

As Clay had been the principal instigator of war, so he was 
selected as one of the negotiators of peace. It was proposed at 
first to meet at Gottingen, but, by agreement of the commis- 
sioners, Ghent was afterward selected. Albert Gallatin, James 
A. Bayard, John Q. Adams and Jonathan Russel acted, with 
Mr. Clat, for the American Government ; Lord Gambler, Henry 
Gt)ulborne and William Adamos, for the British. 

The English commissioners were able, from their nearness to 
home, to refer every important matter to the consideration of 
the power which had appointed them. The dispatches of 
the American commissioners to their Government were, unex- 
pectedly to themselves, spread before the people. It was feared 



46 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

that tliis ill-advised proceeding would embarrass negotiations. 
Lord Gambler, when the subject was alluded to in his presence 
by Mr. Clay, purposely to call out his opinion, expressed his 
unqualified surprise at an action so entirely without precedent 
in diplomatic experience. Mr. Clay gave the subject a most 
ingenious and characteristic turn. He represented to Lord 
Cambier, that to lay the matter thus before the people was 
equivalent only to what the British commissioners had done, in 
referring matters to their home Government ; for that, in the 
United States, the whole American people were the repositories 
of power, and that directly to them the commissioners stood 
responsible. 

After long discussion in regard to the Fisheries, the right to 
which the English wished to recall ; the navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi, which they demanded for their vessels, upon equal 
terms with ours ; the right of protection over the Lidians, 
which they claimed, and a boundary line which would deprive 
us of a large portion of our territory, but which they ceased to 
contend for, the terms of peace were agreed upon. American 
rights were established upon a footing which they had never 
before enjoyed. The commerce of the ocean was released from 
its intolerable r^trictions. The odious right of search was 
relinquished. The navigation of the Mississippi was denied to 
English vessels. The pi-iviiege of fishing in British Avaters was 
not withdrawn. The impertinent claim to extend a supervision 
over our Indian tribes, was abandoned. And so well were 
the principal rights which were contended for established, that 
America never since has had occasion for those cojuplaints 
which drove her reluctantly into conflict with her haughty foe. 
This fact Henry Clay might proudly point to, in vindication of 
the earnestness with which he pleaded for a war in defense of 
"Free Trade and Sailors' Rights." What he had urged his 
country to contend for, upon sea and upon land, at the cannon's 
mouth, he labored efiectually to secure in the peaceable encoun- 
ters of diplomacy. Having proved himself zealous for his 
country's righls in her halls of legislation, he proved, also, 
that he might be trusted to demand for her abroad, all that 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 4:7 

justice might claim, or that a foe, whose insolence was somewhat 
subdued, might be expected to yield. 

After concluding negotiations, Mr. Clay proceeded to Paris. 
He delayed, as yet, to go to England ; for during his residence at 
Ghent, he had heard with chagrin of the capture of Washington. 
But while he remained undecided, the intelligence came of the 
battle of New Orleans. "Now," he exclaimed, "I can go to 
Eniifland withoiit mortification." 

In England, Mr. Clay received not only every attention which 
his official character would naturally elicit, but the most flattering 
regard from men who would not have bestowed it except where 
they had discovered agreeable qualities, and been affected with 
sincere admiration. Sir James Mackintosh, of whom Mr. Mac- 
aulay says : " His mind was a vast magazine, admirably ar- 
ranged ; every thing was there, and every thing was in its place. 
His judgments on men, on sects, on books, had been often and 
carefully tested and weighed, and had then been committed 
each to its proper receptacle, in the most capacious and accu- 
rately constructed memory that any human being ever pos- 
sessed. It would have been strange, indeed, if you had asked 
for any thing that was not to be found in that immense store- 
house ;" — Sir James Mackintosh wrote to the youthful American 
diplomatist the following flattering note : 

"Sir James Mackintosh is so eager to have the honor of Mr. 
Clay's acquaintance, that he ventures to request his company 
this evening to a small party, when Lady Mackintosh will be 
most happy to receive him, at nine or ten o'clock, with any 
gentleman of his suit who may be so good as to honor them 
wit!i cominsf." 



o 



In September, 1815, Mr. Clay returned to his own country, 
and shortly afterward entered Congress, to which he had been 
re-elected during his absence. He was chosen Speaker a second 
time. As the procuring cause of the war, and the negotiator of 
the subsequent peace, he felt called upon to stand forth as the 
champion of the treaty, against its opposei's. 



48 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

"Whatever diversity of opinion," lie said, "may have existed 
as to the declaration of the war, there are some points on which 
all may look back with proud satisfaction. The first relates to 
the time of the conclusion of the peace. Had it been imme- 
diately after the treaty of Paris, we should have retired humil- 
iated from the contest, believing that we had escaped the severe 
chastisement with which we were threatened ; and that we owed 
to the generosity and magnanimity of the enemy, what we were 
incapable of commanding by our arms. That magnanimity 
would have been the theme of every tongue, and of every press, 
abroad and at home. We should have retired, unconscious of 
our strength, and unconscious of the utter inability of the 
enemy, with his whole undivided force, to make any serious 
impressions upon us. Our military character, then in the 
lowest state of degradation, would have been unretrieved. 

" Fortunately for us, Great Britain chose to try the issue of the 
last campaign. And the issue of the last campaign has demon- 
strated, in the repulse before Baltimore, the retreat from Platts- 
buro- the hard-fouo-ht action on the Niagara frontier, and in that 
most glorious day, the eighth of January, that we have always 
possessed the finest elements of military composition ; and that a 
proper use of them, only, was necessary to insure, for the army 
and militia, a fame as imperishable as that which the navy had 
previously acquired. 

" Another point, which appears to me to afford the highest 
consolation is, that we fought the most powerful nation per- 
haps in existence, single-handed and alone, without any sort of 
alliance. More than thirty years has Great Britain been ma- 
turing her phvsical means, which she had rendered a? efiica- 
cious as possible, by skill, by discipline, and by actual service. 
Proudly boasting of the conquest of Europe, she vainly flattered 
herself with the easy conquest of America, also. Her veterans 
were put to flight, or defeated, while all Europe, — I mean the 
governments of Europe, — was gazing, with cold indifference or 
sentiments of positive hatred of us, upon the arduous contest. 
Hereafter, no monarch can assert claims of gratitude upon us 
for assistance I'endered in the hour of dang-er. 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 49 

'* There is another view of which the subject of the war is 
fairly susceptible. From the moment that Great Britain came 
forward at Ghent with her extravagant demands, the war totally 
changed in character. It became, as it were, a new war. It was 
no longer an American war, prosecuted for objects of British 
aggressions upon American rights, but became a British war, 
prosecuted for objects of British ambition, to be accompanied 
by American sacrifices. And what were those demands ? They 
consisted of the erection of a barrier between Canada and the 
United States, to be formed by cutting off from Ohio and some 
of the Territories, a country more extensive than Great Britain, 
containing- thousands of freemen, who were to be abandoned to 
their fate, and creating a new power totally unknown upon the 
continent of America ; of the dismantling of our fortresses and 
naval power on the lakes, with the surrender of the military 
occupation of those waters to the enemy ; and of an arrondisse- 
ment for two British provinces. These demands, boldly as- 
serted, and one of them declared to be a sine qv.a non, were 
finally relinquished. Taking this view of the subject, if there 
be loss of reputation by either party, in the terms of peace, who 
has sustained it? ^ 

" The effects of the war ai-e highly satisfactory. Abroad, our 
character, which at the time of its declaration was in the lowest 
state of degradation, is raised to the highest point of elevation. 
It is impossible for any American to visit Europe without being 
sensible of this agreeable change, in tlie personal attentions 
which he receives, in the praises which are bestowed on our past 
exertions, and the predictions which are made as to our future 
prospects." 

In the winter session of 1815-16, President Madison recom- 
mended the establishment of a National Bank, as a measure of 
relief for the financial embarrassments of the country. On the 
eighth of January, 1816, John C. Calhoun, chairman of the com- 
mittee to which the subject had been referred, reported in favor 
of the institution. Clat, in the noble ingenuousness of his nature, 
did not fear to come out, despite his former views, and give the 
whole weio-ht of his influence in favoi of the measure. He knew 
5 



50 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

that he rendered himself liable to the charge of fickleness and in 
consistency. He knew that the bloodhounds of party would follow 
upon the trail and raise a clamor at his expense. But, whether 
rioht or wrono- in his views, he had become convinced that, for 
the financial distresses of the country, thei-e was no other remedy. 
He hesitated not, therefore, to sacrifice the appearance of con- 
sistency to the supposed welfare of his country. He advocated 
the measure in Congress, until be saw it brought to a suc- 
cessful issue, and justified his course, with the utmost appear- 
ance of candor, to his constituents at home. That he was 
sincere in his change of views, we can have no just occasion 
to doubt. 

The country, at the close of the war, felt the effects of that 
sudden revulsion whicli always attends a sudden change from 
hostilities to peace. Manufactures which, during the suspension 
of commerce, flourished without competition, languished when 
peace whitened again tlie sea with sails. Domestic labor could 
not stand before the foreign competition. Our people would not 
submit to work for prices whicli the half famished artisans of 
the Manche&ters and Birminghams of England were glad to 
accept. 

War, too, creates special branches of business, and furnishes 
employment in ways peculiar to itself. The restoration of peace 
is, therefore, the discharge of thousands from situations, upon the 
continuance of which, depended their daily bread. 

In addition to all this, a sudden and oppressive debt hangs 
like an incubus upon the energies of a nation, at the moment it 
leaves the toils of war to resume the kindlier arts of peace. 

At such emergencies, the people look expectantly to their 
legislators. They have not the political sagacity which would 
enable them to wait in confident hope, for time to bring the 
wished-for changes ; and even if they possessed the sagacity, 
they would hardly exercise the patience. Like one laboring 
under a painful disease, the agony of which, nevertheless, is th« 
outworking of tlie malady and the salvation of the patient, they 
demand an instant remedy, not reflecting that a temporary stxp- 
pression of pain may prove, in the end, disastrous and fatal. 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 51 

The physician and the legislator feel also, each in their 
sepaiate departments, that since it is their province to relieve 
suffering and restore to health, they will be wanting in their 
duty, unless, by some heroic remedy, they remove the visible, 
undeniable evidences of distress. So that, looking more to 
present relief than to permanent benefit ; yielding themselves 
rather to the impulse of their feelings than to the calm con- 
viction of their judgments, they often institute measures, in 
all sincerity, which afterward none would regret more than 
themselves. 

The United States Bank, we conceive to have been such a 
measure ; yet, at the same time, we believe that Clay, and 
Calhoun, and Madison, and the host of others who approved of 
it, acted under the firmest conviction, that thus they were best 
promoting the interests of their country, and meriting the ap- 
proval of patriots. Nor need we wonder that this should be so, 
for political science, though capable of being reduced to rigid 
rules and to a simple system, is yet but one of the youngest of the 
sciences ; and it labors, moreover, under the disadvantage that 
disorders in the body politic can often be corrected only by years 
of patient waiting, extending, not unfrequently, beyond the lives 
of the existing generation. But, as Ave have indicated, it is not 
in the nature of man to wait so long in hope. Something must 
be done at once, and if the regular physician, if the true leois- 
lator will not do it, resort will be had to some medical or political 
quack, according as the case may be, who will promise most 
largely, and administer his remedies most heroically. It is diffi- 
cult, also, when not enlightened by experience, to keep accurately 
in the mind relations of cause and effect, which are separated by 
so wide an interval. 

If we are wiser to-day than the statesmen of forty years ago, 
it is not because we have clearer heads, or sounder judgments, 
or larger patriotism, but because the science of legislation has 
advanced, and that, too, by their very instrumentality ; because 
they, by going over the ground before us, have guarded us from 
error, by even their very blunders, and have bequeathed to us 
the accumulated treasures of their experience. 



52 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

Soon after the passage of the bill establishing the United 
States Bank, Mr. Clay made himself somewhat unpopular by 
voting for what was called the Compensation bill. The pay of 
members of Congress had been six dollars per diem. A bill was 
introduced to substitute a salary of fifteen hundred dollars for 
the session, in place of the per diem allowance. 

Clat found it necessary to canvass his own State, in oppo- 
sition to his former colleague, to secure his seat. His popu- 
larity was, however, proof against even this undemocratic 
measure, as it was thought, and he was returned again to 
Congress. At the next session the obnoxious bill was repealed, 
and a per diem allowance of eight dollars substituted in place 
of the salary. 

During the course of the ensuing session, a subject came 
before the House which excited the enthusiasm of many of the 
members, and of none so much as that of Clay. It was in reaard 
to South America, in her struggles for independence. We can 
not be expected to understand the feelings inspired at the time, 
by the events to which we refer. We have seen how " lame and 
impotent " the " conclusion " of that, which promised so fairly. 
We have been led to regard, with something of pity and con- 
tempt, the republics which have been formed from the fragments 
of the dismembered colonies of Spain. We have seen them ever 
in a ferment ; never enjoying " the bliss of calm ;" never reach- 
ina: the true end of Government. We have seen their beautiful 
theory of liberty give way in practice, sometimes to anarchy, 
and sometimes to military despotism. We have seen them set 
forth in the career of self-government, with sounding manifestoes 



o 



and every semblance of energy, only to relapse into hopeless 
supineness, and to become mere ciphers in the political interests 
of the world. 

But when they began their struggles, only tl>e brilliance of 
what they attempted was seen ; the inauspicious ending Avas 
hidden in the future. The ardent and impulsive saw, in their 
declaration and struggle for liberty, a case parallel to our own. 
For a time it was fondly believed that the whole western hemi- 
sphere would become the home of liberty. 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY, 53 

The temperament and feelings of Clat were of just the nature 
to be fired by such a spectacle. The theme was admirably 
adapted to his style of eloquence. Of Liberty in its largest and 
broadest sense, he was a devout worshiper ; upon it, he might 
expend any measure of enthusiasm ; without restrictlDn, he 
mio-Lt indulge in his loftiest declamation. He was uutirinor 
in his efforts to secure, from our Government, a recognition of 
South American independence. His speeches were translated 
into Spanish, and read at the head of the republican armies. 
He was regarded by the struggling colonies, as their champion 
in the American Congress. They voted him thanks, and cor- 
responded with him through their generals. Yet the object at 
which he aimed was not immediately attained. Two or three 
years still elapsed, before the independence of the South Ameri- 
can republics was recognized by our Government. 



CHAPTEK VI. 

Me. Clay is oflfered the post of Minister to Russia — Also, a place in the 
Cabinet — ^Advocates internal improvements — Mr. Clay the father of a 
policy and a party — The character and services of the Whig party — 
Seminole war — The conduct of Jackson. 

Mr. Madison acknowledged the merit and abilities of Mr. 
Clay, by offering him, upon his return from Europe, after the 
treaty of peace, the situation of Minister to Russia, and again, 
upon the occurrence of a vacancy in his Cabinet, the Secretary- 
ship of War. Thus honors poured in upon the rising statesman, 
from every quarter. Success had smiled upon him from the 
first. By none of the artifices of the demagogue ; by no special 
solicitation of any kind, he had risen to such estimation, that 
honors, instead of being sought by him, might almost be said 
to have come to him soliciting acceptance. 

He declined the flattering offers of Mr. Madison, believing 
that he could serve his country best in her halls of legislation. 
He had occasion soon to advocate, what was ever with him, a 
favorite measure. It had been proposed to expend the bonus of 
the United States Bank, upon Internal Improvements. A bill to 
that effect was passed by Congress, but to the surprise of Mr. 
Clay, was vetoed by President Madison. 

This was upon the third of March, 1817. Upon the next 
day James Monroe was inaugurated President. But he, it was 
understood, would follow, in respect to this matter, in the foot- 
steps of his predecessors. A resolution was, notwithstanding, 
offered in the House of Representatives, to the effect that Con- 
gress possessed the constitutional power to construct military 
roads, post roads and canals. 

( 511 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 55 

Upon this resoludon Clat, March thirteenth, made one of his 
most powerful and effective speeches. Political sentiment, from 
the day on which the Constitution was adopted until the present 
hour, has been divided as to the right which that instrument 
confers, to carry on systems of improvement within the different 
States, at the expense, and under the direction of the Federal 
Government. 

The prosecution of such improvements, the advocates of 
State Rights have regarded an unwarrantable assumption of 
power, and an interference with the domestic polity of the 
different sovereignties which constitute the Republic. To yield 
the point, they have felt would be to advance far toward 
that consolidation of power, which they have ever earnestly 
deprecated. 

Mr. Clay expended the principal force of his argument against 
that class of objectors. He undertook to show that, if the power 
to carry on internal improvements was not expressly conferred 
by the Constitution, it was most unquestionably implied. The 
power to establish post roads, which was granted by the Consti- 
tution, was, he contended, the power to construct them. 

The Government, he also argued, since it had the power to 
make war, had also, by implication, the power " to employ the 
whole physical means of the nation to render the war, whatever 
may be its character, successful and glorious." There was, 
therefore, "a direct and intimate relation between the power to 
make war and miliiary roads and canals." 
v" Some of his opponents might, perhaps, in view of his inge- 
nuity, quote against him the story which, in earlier days, he 
brought forward against those who souofht a warrant in the Con- 
stitution for a national bank. They might remind him of the 
Virginia justice, who represented " to the man, whose turkey 
had been stolen, that his books of precedents furnished no form 
for his case, but then he would grant him a precept to search 
for a cow, and, when looking for that, he might possibly find 
his turkey." They might charge him with being recreant to 
liis early principles and possessed of an unequaled facility, both 
'n changing his opinions, and confuting his own arguments. 



56 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

It doubLless must be admitted, that Mr. Clay's views of the 
Constitution, during a course of years, underwent a change. He 
was less a Slates' Rights man than at first. By his political 
sagacity, he saw how much for the country a vigorous central 
power, well administered, might accomplish. He saw that to 
limit the Constitution, as some desired to limit it, would render 
that instrument a most effete and worthless thing. He saw that 
the tendency of the States' Rights doctrine was to rob us of our 
unity, in which resides our strength, and to substitute for it the 
weakness of jealous and conflicting sovereignties. He saw the 
great resources of our country, and he longed to develop them. 
Those resources, he felt, could not be made productive, unless 
Government reached out to them its arm of strength. A little 
more of federalism he, therefore, ingrafted upon his early democ- 
racy ; but it was because the good and glory of his country 
pointed him to such a course. He was such a leader as the 
times demanded, — one to inaugurate a more united and vigorous 
policy. The country was undei'going a salutary political change, 
and it was given him' to be the master-spirit of that change. 
His measures constituted him the founder and leader of a new 
party. That party, bcariug long the old and honored name of 
Whig, is now, in all that is distinctive, passing away; but it 
would be wrong, either to measure the extent of its influence, by 
the length of its years, or to believe that it has passed the autumn 
of its decline, without accomplishing the mission for which it 
was called into existence. Most of the measures, which consti- 
tuted its favorile policy, have, indeed, been permitted quietly t(f 
pass from notice, but not before they subserved, some of them 
at least, the valuable temporary ends for which ihey were de- 
signed ; and not befoi'e others exerted upon the legislation of the 
country a formalive influence, which, if not so great as was 
aimed at, is yet too decided to be eflaced. As each year makes 
more apparent the vigor and efficiency of our noble Government ; 
as each year reveals new proofs of the wonderful resources of 
our country ; as each year gladdens our land with prosperity, 
and pours into oui' cofters no slintcd lido of wealth, let not the 
an'ency of llie Whig party, in accomplishing the glad result, be 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY, 57 

forgotten, and let not fitting hono» be refused to the memory of 
their gallant leader, "Hakry Clay." 

The views upon internal improvements, which Mr. Clay ad- 
vocated, on the thirteenth of March, he had the satisfaction of 
seeing sustained by Congress. The resolution was adopted by . 
a vote of ninety to seventy-five. His labors, at difierent periods, 
for kindred objects, rendered him, in many sections of the coun- 
try, the most popular man of the nation. At a prominent point 
upon the Cumberland road, which w^as constructed mainly 
through his influence, a stone, inscribed with his name, was y' 
erected to commemorate the gratitude of the people. 

In 1818, Mr. Clay came into conflict, for the first time, with 
his future adversary, — " the man of iron will." General Jack- 
son had been sent with an army, to repress disturbances occa- 
sioned by the Seminole Indians. In the discharge of his duty, 
he paid but little regard to the usages of civilized warfare. The 
unfortunate savages received, at his hands, such treatment as 
might be given to pirates or wild beasts. Two traders, Arbuth- 
not and Ambrister, Avere hung in violation of the rules of war. 
Several Spanish fortresses, though we were at peace with Spain, 
were attacked and taken. 

A resolution of censure was moved in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. It became the occasion of a most exciting and stormy 
debate. Jackson was at the summit of popularity, as the hero of 
New Orleans. Yet Clay did not hesitate to characterize his 
conduct, in the terms Avhich it deserved. 

"To you, Mr. Chairman," said he, in (he conclusion of his 
speech, "belongs the high privilege of transmitting, unimpaired, 
to posterity the fair character and liberty of our country. Do 
you expect to execute this high trust, by trampling, or suffering 
to be trampled down, law, justice, the Constitution, and the 
rights of the people ? — by exhibiting examples of inhumanity, 
and cruelty, and ambition ? When the minions of despotism 
heard, in Europe, of the seizure of Pensacola, how did they 
chuckle, and chide the admirers of our institutions, tauntingly 
pointing to the demonstraiion of a spirit of injustice and aggran- 
dizement, made by our country in the midst of an amicable 



58 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

negotiation. Behold, said ihffy, the conduct of those who are 
constantly reproaching kings. You saw how those admirers 
were astounded and hung their heads. You saw, too, when 
that illustrious man, who presides over us, adopted his pacific, 
moderate, and just course, how they once more lifted up their 
heads, with exultation and delight beaming on their counte- 
nances. And you saw how those minions, themselves, were 
finally compelled to unite in the general praises bestowed upon 
our government. Beware how you forfeit this exalted character. 
Beware how you give a fatal sanction, in this infant period of our 
Republic, scarcely yet two score years old, to military insubor- 
dination. Remember that Greece had her Alexander, Rome her 
Ceesar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte, and that 
if we would escape the rock on which they split, we must avoid 
their errors. 

" How different has been the treatment of General Jackson, and 
that modest but heroic young man, a native of one of the smallest 
States in the Union, who achieved for his country, on Lake Erie, 
one of the most glorious victories of the late war. In a moment 
of passion, he forgot himself and ofiered an act of violence, 
which was repented of as soon as peipetrated. He was tried, 
and suffered the judgment to be pronounced by his peers. 
Public justice was thought even then not to be satisfied. The 
press and Congress took up the subject. My honorable friend 
from Virginia (Mr. Johnson), the faithful and consistent sentinel 
of the law and of the Constitution, disapproved in that instance, 
as he does in this, and moved an inquiry. The public mind 
remained agitated and unappeased, until the recent atonement, so 
honorably made by the gallant Commodore. And is there to be a 
distinction between the officers of the two branches of the public 
service ? Are former services, however eminent, to preclude 
even inquiry into recent misconduct ? Is there to be no limit, 
no jDrudential bounds to the national gratitude ? I am not dis- 
posed to censure the President for not ordering a court of 
inquiry, or a general court-martial. Perhaps impelled by a 
sense of gratitude, he determined, by anticipation, to extend to 
the General that pardon, which he had the undoubted right to 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 59 

grant after sentence. Let us not shrink from our duty. Let us 
assert our constitutional powers, and vindicate the instrument 
from military violation." 

The popularity of Jackson, however, and the tacit influence 
of the Executive availed to prevent the passage of the resolution 
of censure. 

Clay, at the opening of his speech, had expressly disclaimed 
the influence of any personal prejudice. 

"In rising to address you, Mr. Chairman," he had said, "on 
the very interesting subject which now engages the attention of 
Congress, I must be allowed to say, that all influences drawn 
from the course, which it will be my painful duty to take in this 
discussion, of unfriendliness, either to the chief magistrate of 
the country, or to the illustrious military chieftain, whose opera- 
tions are under investigation, will be wholly unfounded. Toward 
that distinguished captain, who shed so much glory on our 
country, — whose renown constitutes so great a portion of its 
moral property, — I never had, I never can liave any other feel- 
ings than those of the most profound respect and of the utmost 
kindness." 

But this disavowal was not sufficient to avert the ano"er of the 
irascible General. He took deep offense at the course pursued 
by Clay. Upon visiting Washington, whicli he did soon after, 
he refused to hold any communication with him. From this 
point, therefore, we date the beginning of the war between the 
political chieftains. 



CHAPTER YII. 

Me. Clay as a "pacificator" — Missouri desires admission — Violent agita» 
tion of slavery — The Compromise — The efforts of Mr. Clay. 

Mr. Clay's talents, during twenty years, had been displayed 
in various forms of legislation. One position remained to bo 
tried before his character, as a statesman and patriot, might 
be pronounced complete. The opportunity soon presented 
itself. A struggle, not between this and other Governments, 
but the more fearful throes of civil dissension, occupied the 
public thought, and gave alarm to all the well-wishers of our 
institutions. Clay's services, for the first time, were de- 
manded to pacify fraternal strife. He had earned laurels of 
which he might be proud in other and varied capacities, but 
so well did he acquit himself in this, so pre-eminently did he 
attract all eyes to himself, as to the only one who could 
accomplish what others despaired of; and so successfully, 
more than once afterward, did he perform the same benignant 
office, that no title seems so entirely to befit him as that by 
which he has sometimes been designated, — " The Great Pa- 
cificator." 

The event which first revealed him to the country, in the 
capacity of which we speak, was what has been called the Mis- 
souri Question. As early as 1818, the Territory of Missouri 
intimated a desire to be admitted to the privileges of a State. 
The subject was taken up in Congress, in the session of 1818-19. 
The bill relating to the subject became the occasion of the most 
violent excitement, upon the vexed question of Slavery. The 
House of Representatives inserted in it the following resolutions, 
which were inci)rporaicd by a small majority : 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 61 

" Resolved, That the further introduction of slavery, or invol- 
untary servitude, be prohibited, except for the punishment of 
crimes, whereof the party shall have been fully convicted. 

"And, that all children, born within the said State, after the 
admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of 
twenty-five years." 

The bill, as amended, was rejected by the Senate, and Mis- 
souri was condemned to wait. In the meantime popular feeling 
became greatly roused. In no amiable mood, at the next session 
of Congress, Missouri renewed her application. The subject 
was again taken'up. Various resolutions were reported. It was 
moved, " that a committee be appointed to report a bill, prohibit- 
ing the further introduction of slaves, into the Territories of the 
United States, west of the Mississippi." This motion met with 
violent opposition. At last a compromise was agreed upon, in a 
conference of the two Houses of Congress. The terms of that 
compromise are conveyed in the following resolution : 

"Resolved, That in all the Territory, ceded by France to the 
United. States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 
thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, north latitude, not included 
within the limits contemplated by this act, slavery and involun- 
tary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, 
whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall be, and 
is, hereby, forever prohibited : Provided always, Tliat any 
person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is 
lawfully claimed, in any State or Territory of the United States, 
such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the 
person claiming his or her labor, or service, as aforesaid." 

During the summer of 1820, the people of Missouri organized 
a State government, but, inflamed by the opposition which 
their application had met with, and the restrictions which it had 
been sought to impose upon them, inserted in their Constitution, 
a clause to the effect, that "it should be the duty of the General 
Assembly, as soon as possible, to pass such laws as might be 
necessary, to prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming 
to, or settling in, the Siatp, under any pretext whatever." 

The committees, in boili Houses of Congress, imported in 



62 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

favor of sanctioning the Constitution, as it was. The Senate 
concurred, but the House was again distracted with intense ex- 
citement, and involved in a most stormy debate. 

Nor was the excitement confined to Congress. It had become 
general throughout the country. The North was arrayed against 
the South, and the South against the North. Inflammatory meet- 
ings were held, and every newspaper teemed with new appeals to 
feelings already unduly exasperated. 

The obnoxious clause was looked upon as inserted, in defiance 
of the North, and the restriction upon free negroes was held to 
conflict with the Constitution and the rights of citizenship. The 
true cause of excitement was, however, back of all this. 

The public feeling, during the past few years, has been so 
often and so deeply agitated, in regard to the subject of slavery, 
that all other issues have become subordinate to it. It is the 
great social and political pi'oblem of our country. The Missouri 
question only furnished an occasion, for the outAvorking of a 
feeling, which is ever waiting to be roused. Upon one side of 
an invisible, but accurately defined line, stands an army of 
watchful opponents of slavery. Upon the other, the guardians 
of that institution, jealous of their privileges and ceaselessly on 
the alert against their invasion. Every thing, which promises 
the advance, most of all the predominance, of one of these lynx- 
eyed parties, brings against it, with angry menace, the other. 
The control of the legislation of the country, is the goal, toward 
which are bent the persistent eftbrts of both. The application 
for admission of every new State, therefore, which, by any pos- 
sibility, whether of situation or of climate, can become an object 
of contention, develops their latent activities, and agitates with 
dangerous convulsions the country. 

The application of Missouri occasioned so unusual an ex- 
citement, because its admission involved a test question, and 
would constitute a significant precedent. All of the territory of 
the Union, from which States previously had been formed, had 
had their domestic polity, so far as slavery was concerned, defi- 
nitely settled by the action of the centi'al Government. The 
ordinance of 17P>7 secured (hem to freedom. 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 63 

But the case of Missouri was difFeient. The new State was 
formed from a part of that territory wliich had been ceded, by 
Fi'aiice, to the United States. The destiny of that immense 
country became, therefore, an anxious problem. In respect to it 
there was no specific regulation of our Government. Was it, 
then, open to all the institutions of our country, not excepting 
the sectional one of the South ; or, as the national domain, was 
it to be considered exclusively the property of freedom ? This 
was the exciting question, and, upon its solution, were involved 
immense results. If secured to the North alone, that section 
would receive thereby an inevitable predominance ; — if open to 
both, the South might possibly maintain a political equality. 
The North argued, that it was contrary to the intentions of the 
founders of our Government : contrary to the genius of our insti- 
tutions ; and contrary to the rights of man, to extend slavery 
over a square foot of territory beyond its original limits. The 
South contended, that slavery already existed in the disputed 
territory ; that it was an institution of tlie soil, by the previous 
legislation of another power; and that the slave States had 
equal right, with the non-slaveholding, to extend their institu- 
tions, and to enjoy their special privileges in any part of the 
national domain. 

Mr. Clay, dui'ing previous sessions, while the subject was 
before Congress, labored heroically to reconcile the painful dif- 
ferences. Private embarrassments compelled him, in 1820, to 
resign his office as Speaker, and to betake himself again to the 
practice of his profession. But the threatening attitude of 
affairs did not permit him to remain away long. Leaving behind 
the lesser concerns of private interest, he resumed his seat in 
Congress. This was in January, 1821. 

His undoubted patriotism, his tried integrity, his unrivaled 
popularity, pointed him out as the arbiter of the strife. On the 
second of February, he procured the appointment of a committee 
of thirteen, of which he was Chairman. The committee reported 
the followinof resolution : 

"Resolved, That the State of Missouri be admitted into tl'.e 
Union, on an equal footing with the original Slates, in all 



64 THE LIFE OF IIENKY CLAY. 

respects whatever, uj^jon the fundamental condition, that the said 
State shall never pass any laAV, preventing any description of 
persons from coming to, and settling in, the said State, who now 
are, or may hereafter become, citizens of any of the States of 
this Union ; and provided also, That the Legislature of the said 
State, by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said 
State to the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the 
President of the United States, on or before the fourth Monday 
in November next, an authentic copy of the said act, upon the 
receipt whereof, the President, by proclamation, shall announce 
the fact; whereupon, and without any further proceeding on the 
part of Congress, the admission of said State into the Union shall 
be considered as complete ; and provided further, Tliat nothing 
herein contained, shall be construed to take from the State of 
Missouri, when admitted into the Union, the exercise of any 
right or power, which can now be constitutionally exercised, 
by any of the original States." 

This resolution, however, notwithstanding the most eloquent 
and impassioned appeals of Clay, was rejected in committee of 
the whole, and afterward in the House. 

Soon after, the House was the scene of increased excitement. 
The occasion was the counting of the electoral votes for Presi- 
dent. The interest turned upon the decision of the question, 
whether the votes ft'om Missouri should be received. The 
Senate, which had assembled in joint-meeting with the House, 
withdrew. Great confusion and perplexity prevailed in conse- 
quence of an uncertainty, which Randolph had raised, as to the 
validity of the election, in the existing attitude of Missouri. 

Difficulties seemed still, as far as ever from an amicable 
adjustment. Both parties were wearied with the conflict, and in 
despair as to its result. 

Mr. Clay made anodier eff"ort. He offered to the House the 
following resolution : 

"Resolved, That a committee be appointed, on the part of the 
House, jointly with such committee as may be appointed on the 
part of the Senate, to consider and report to the Senate, and to 
the House, respectively, wliether it be expedient, or not, to make 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. _ 65 

provision for the admission of Missouri into the Union, on the 
same footing as the original States ; and for the due execution 
of the laws, within Missouri ; and, if not, whether any other, 
and what provision, adapted to her actual condition, ought to 
be made by law." 

The House adopted the resolution. The committee consisted 
of twenty-three members. Mr. Clay exerted himself to have 
those appointed, whom he knew to be willing to compromise the 
difficulty, and give peace to the country. He himself was at 
the head of the number. The Senate appointed a committee to 
confer with that of the House. They met in joint-conference, 
and adopted a report not greatly varying from that which had 
been previously presented by the committee of thirteen. 

But the country, wearied by the long agitation, was heartily 
desirous of peace. The report, when laid before the House, 
was adopted by a vote of eighty-seven to eighty-one. Missouri 
acquiesced in it, and thus, at last, was settled the question, 
which threatened, at one time, to rend asunder the Union, and 
kindle the flames of civil war. 

The nation has always accorded to Mr. Clay its gratitude, for 
bringing about this happy result ; but how deeply we are in his 
debt, those only can know who witnessed his persevering labors ; 
who were aware of his sleepless and incessant anxiety ; and who 
listened to the impassioned, and often pathetic tones of his 
eloquence. 

6 



CHAPTER YIII. 

Candidates for the Presidency iu 1824 — Ko election by the people — Mr. 
Clay's influence given to Mr. Adams — Charge of corruption — Mr. 
Kremer of Pennsylvania — Revival of the charge by Jackson — More 
trouble — A duel with Randolph. 

Nothing unusual, either in his personal history, or in the 
interests of his country, interrupted, for the two or three years 
subsequent to the events which we have described, the even 
tenor of Mr. Clay's life. ' Between his professional employment, 
domestic ease, and the toils of legislation, he passed his time 
until the Presidential canvass of 1824. His abilities and popu- 
larity had long pointed significantly toward the Presidency. 
His admirers waited only for him to attain the proper age and 
experience, to bring forward his claims. 

Jackson, Crawford and John Quincy Adams were before the 
people for their votes. The friends of Clay believed that his 
time, too, had fully come. Several State Legislatures had 
expressed their preference for him. Kentucky, two years in 
advance, had promised to stand by him. 

The canvass went duly on, but resulted in the election of no 
one of the four candidates. Jackson stood highest on the list, 
Adams next, and Clay the last. The three highest only could 
be presented to the House for their choice. It devolved, there- 
fore, upon Clay to decide upon which he would bestow his vote 
and influence. Meanwhile, he was the object of marked atten- 
tion from the adherents of the several opposing aspirants for 
honor. His own personal preferences were for Mr. Crawford, 
but such was the state of Crawford's health, that he believed 
him unfitted for the duties of the Presidency. Jackson and 
Atlams he believed to be, practically, the only candidates, 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 67 

between -whom he was called to choose. He gave the prefer- 
ence to Mr. Adams, and thus secured his election. Upon 
assuming the Presidential chair, Mr. Adams offered to Mr. 
Clat a seat in his Cabinet as Secretary of State. This office 
Mr. Clay accepted. 

Such is the brief history of an occurrence, which party 
malignity afterward converted into an instrument, which, when 
he was at the full tide of his popularity, Avell-nigh proved 
fatal to the reputation of Clay. Never before had he felt the 
blasting breath of calumny, nor taken any abiding lessons in the 
school of adversity. Confident in the integrity of his own 
character, trusting to the firmness of an established reputation, 
he committed what he afterward acknowledged to be the blunder 
of his life. The finger of suspicion was pointed at him, and 
through many a long year, his fortunes underwent a disastrous 
eclipse. 

Time has done for him what his own assertions could not do. 
His character is thoroughly vindicated. It is doubtful, whether 
the bittei'est enemy he ever had, while living, now believes 
him guilty of corruption in the transaction for which he was 
reproached. It will not, therefore, be necessary to undertake a 
formal vindication of his character, but only to give a short and 
simple history of those proceedings which proposed, as their 
end, to blacken it. 

We have said that, previous to the election in the House, Mr. 
Clat was made the subject of marked attentions, by the friends 
of the opposing candidates. "Every body," as he said, in an 
address to his constituents, "professed to 'regret, after I was 
excluded from the House, that I had not been returned to it. I 
seemed to be the favorite of every body. Describing my situa- 
tion to a distant friend, I said to him, * I am enjoying, while 
alive, the posthumous honors which are usually awarded to the 
venerated dead.' A person not acquainted with human nature, 
would have been surprised, in listening to these praises, that the 
object of them had not been elected by general acclamation. 
None made more or Avarmer manifestations of these sentiments 
of esteem and admiration, than some of the friends of General 



68 THE LIFE OF HEXRY CLAY. 

Jackson. None were so reserved as those of Mr. Adams, under 
an opinion (as I have learned since the election), which they 
early imbibed, that the western vote would be influenced only by 
its own sense of public duty; and that, if its judgment pointed 
to any other than Mr. Adams, nothing which they could do 
would secure it to him. These professions and manifestations 
were taken by me, for what they were worth. 

"I knew that the sunbeams would quickly disappear, after 
my opinion should be ascertained, and that they would be suc- 
ceeded by a storm ; although I did not foresee exactly how it 
would burst upon my poor head. I found myself transformed, 
from a candidate before the people, into an elector for the people. 
I deliberately examined the duties incident to this new attitude, 
and weighed all the facts before me, upon which my judgment 
was to be formed or reviewed. If the eagerness of any of 
the heated partisans of the respective candidates, suggested 
a tardiness in the declaration of my intention, I believed that 
the new relation, in which I was placed to the subject, im- 
posed on me an obligation to pay some respect to delicacy and 
decorum. 

" Meanwhile, that very reserve supplied aliment to newspaper 
criticism. The critics could not comprehend how a man stand- 
ing as I had stood, toward the other gentlemen, should be 
restrained, by a sense of propriety, from instantly fighting under 
the banners of one of them, against the others. Letters were 
issued from the manufactory at Washington, to come back, after 
performing long journeys, for Washington consumption. These 
letters imputed to ' Mr. Clay and his friends a mysterious air, — 
a portentous silence,' etc. From dark and distant hints, the pro- 
gress was easy to open and bitter denunciation. Anonymous 
letters, full of menace and abuse, were almost daily poured in 
on me. Personal threats were communicated to me through 
friendly organs, and I was kindly apprized of all the glories of 
villag-e effiofies, which awaited me. A systematic attack was 
simultaneously commenced upon me, from Boston to Charleston, 
with an object, present and future, which it was impossible to 
mistake. No man but myself, could know the nature, extent, 



THE LIFE OF IIEXRY CLAY. 69 

and variety of means Avhich were employed to awe and influence 
me. I bore them, I trust, as your representative ought to have 
borne them, and as became me." 

The friends of Jackson, at last, as it would seem, became 
convinced that, unless desperate measures were resorted to, Mr. 
Clay's vote and influence would be given to Mr. Adams. A 
new mode of intimidation was therefore adopted. A letter 
appeared in the Columbian Observer, published at Philadelphia, 
charo-ing definitely upon Mr. Clay the terms of a bargain 
between himself and Mr. Adams, in accordance with which he 
was to support the latter, and receive, as his reward, the first 
seat in the Cabinet. Tlie letter professed to be written by 
a member of Congress, acquainted with the facts which he 
afiirmed. 

Mr. Clay felt himself called upon to publish an indignant 
denial, and to brand the author of the letter, " as a base and in- 
famous calumniator." The publication of this card, by Mr. 
Clay, called out one from Mr. Kremer of Pennsylvania. In it he 
avowed, "though somewhat equivocally, that he was the author 
of the letter to the Columbian Observer." "To Mr. Crownin- 
shield, a member from Massachusetts, formerly Secretary of the 
Navy," continues Mr. Clay, in the address from which we have 
quoted, "he declared, that he was not the author of that letter. 
In his card he draws a clear line of separation, between my 
friends and me, acquitting them and undertaking to make good 
his charges in that letter, only so far as I was concerned. The 
purpose of this discrimination is obvious. At that time the elec- 
tion was undecided, and it was, therefore, as important to abstain 
from imputations against my ftiends, as it was politic to fix them 
upon me. If they could be made to believe that I had been 
perfidious, in the transport of their indignation, they might have 
been carried to the support of General Jackson. 

"I received the National Intelligencer, containing Mr. Kre- 
mer's card, at breakfast, on the morning of its publication. As 
soon as I read the card, I took my resolution. The terms of it 
clearly implied, that it had not entered into his conception to 
have a personal affair with me, and I should justly have exposed 



70 THE LIFE OF IIENEY CLAY. 

myself to universal ridicule, if I had sought one with him. I 
determined to lay the matter before the House, and respectfully 
to invite an investigation of my conduct. I accordingly made 
a communication to the House, on the same day, the motives for 
which I assigned. Mr. Kremer was in his place, and, when I 
sat down, rose and stated, that he was ready and willing to sub- 
stantiate his charges against me. This was his voluntary decla- 
ration, unprompted by his aiders and abettors, who had no op- 
portunity of previous consultation with him, on that point. Here 
was an issue, publicly and solemnly joined, in which the accused 
invoked an inquiry into serious charges against him, and the 
accuser professed an ability and a willingness to establish them. 

"A debate ensued, on the next day, which occupied the 
greater part of it, during which Mr. Kremer declared to Mr. 
Brent of Louisiana, a friend of mine, and to Mr. Little of Mary- 
land, a friend of General Jackson, as they have certified, ' that 
he never intended to charge Mr. Clay with corruption or dis- 
honor, in his intended vote for Mr. Adams as President, or that 
he had transferred, or could transfer, the votes or interests of his 
friends ; that he (Mr. Kremer) was among the last men in the 
nation to make such a charge against Mr. Clat ; and that his 
letter was never intended to convey the idea given to it.' " 

A committee was appointed by the House, agreeably to the 
request of Mr. Clay. It consisted of seven members, not one 
of whom was his political friend. 

The committee "called upon Mr. Kremer to execute his 
pledge, publicly given, in his proper place, and also previously 
given in the public prints." "Mr. Kremer was stimulated by 
every motive which could impel to action ; by his consistency 
of character^; by duty to his constituents, to his country ; by that 
of redeeming his solemn pledge ; by his anxious wish for the 
success of his favorite, whose interests could not fail to be ad- 
vanced by supporting his atrocious charges. 

"But Mr. Kremer had now the benefit of the advice of his 
friends. He had no proofs, for the plainest of all reasons, 
because there was no truth in his charges. They saw that to 
attempt to establish them, and to fail, as he must fail in the 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY, 71 

attempt, might lead to an exposure of the conspiracy, of which 
he was the orr^an. 

"They advised, therefore, that he should make a retreat, and 
their adroitness suggested, that, in an objection, to that jurisdic- 
tion of the House which had been admitted ; and in the popular 
topics of the freedom of the press ; his duty to his constituents ; 
and the inequality in the condition of the Speaker of the House 
and a member on the floor, plausible means might be found to 
deceive the ignorant and conceal his disgrace. 

" A labored communication was accordingly prepared by 
them, in Mr. Kremer's name, and transmitted to the committee, 
founded upon these suggestions. Thus the valiant champion 
who had boldly stepped forward and promised, as a representa- 
tive of the people, to 'cry aloud and spare not,' forgot all his 
gratuitous gallantry and boasted patriotism, and sank, at once, 
into profound silence." 

Shortly afterward, Mr. Adams was inducted into office, and 
appointed Mr. Clay to the Department of State. The acceptance 
of office under the new administration gave substance, in the 
eyes of many, to the vague insinuations and charges, which, 
otherwise, would have passed away with the excitement of the 
political canvass. Mr. Clay felt, afterward, that in that instance, 
he committed a mistake. 

" I will take this occasion," said he in his speech, upon his 
retirement to private life, "to say, that I am, and have been 
long satisfied, that it would have been wiser and more politic 
in me, to have declined accepting the office of Secretary of State, 
in 1825. Not that my motives were not as pure and patriotic, 
as ever carried any man into public office. Not that the calumny, 
which was applied to the fact, was not as gross and unfounded 
as any that was ever propagated. Not that valued friends and 
highly esteemed opponents did not unite, in urging my accep- 
tance of the office. Not that the administration of Mr. Adams 
will not, I sincerely believe, advantageously compare with that 
of any of his predecessors, in economy, purity, prudence and 
wisdom. Not that Mr. Adams was himself wanting, in any of 
those high qualifications, and upright and patriotic intentions. 



72 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

which were suited to the office. But my error, in accepting the 
office, arose out of my underrating the power of detraction and 
the force of ignorance, and abiding, with too sure a confidence, 
in the conscious integrity and uprightness of my own motives." 
Well might he regret it, for, like an unquiet spirit, for years 
the charge of corruption was not permitted to res*. It was ever 
starting up to oppose his progress and to interrupt his peace of 
mind. When the public had almost ceased to speak of it, the 
hateful calumny was revived by an enemy who never faltered 
in the execution of any purpose, because of unnecessary scruples 
of conscience, and who, through his immense popularity could 
give to any "airy nothing, a local habitation and a name." 
(reneral Jackson took up the slander. He perhaps believed it, 
for it is easy to believe what we wish to be true. The office 
out of which he had been disappointed, he determined yet to 
secure. But there were formidable competitors in his way. 
Those competitors must be removed. To accomplish that, no 
way was so effective as to blacken their characters. Report 
accused the Executive and the principal Secretary of corruption. 
There was, therefore, thus much ground to begin upon. An 
overture was conveyed to Jackson, — so he affirmed, — to make a 
bargain with Mr. Clay before Mr. Adams should make it. The 
bearer * of the overture intimated that the latter intention was 
entertained, by the friends of the respective parties. The Gen- 
eral, — as he himself asserts, — turned away in disdain from such 
a dishonorable proposal. " Before he would reach the Presi- 

*In the following extract from a letter (dated "Washington, August 
14, 1827), to Francis Brooke, by Mr. Clay, it may be seen who was the 
bearer of the overture, and what his relation to the matter : 

"I hope j'ou are not mistaken in the good effect of my Lexington 
speech. Mr. Buchanan has presented his communication to the public ; 
and although he evidently labors throughout the whole of it to spare and 
cover General Jackson, he fails in every essential particular to sustain 
the General. Indeed, I could not desire a stronger statement from Mr. 
Buchanan. Tlie tables are completely turned upon the General. Instead 
of any intrigues on my part and that of my friends, they were altogether 
on the side of General Jackson and his friends. But I will leave tlie 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAT. 73 

dential Chair, by such moans of bargain and corruption, he 
would see the earth open, and swallow both Mr. Clay, and his 
friends, and himself with them." 

" During the dispensation of the hospitalities of the Hermitage, 
in the midst of a mixed company of individuals, from various 
States, he permits himself," says Mr. Clay, " to make certain 
statements, respecting my friends and me, which, if true, would 
forever dishonor and degrade us. The words are hardly passed 
from his mouth, before ihey are committed to paper, by one of 
his guests, and transmitted, in the form of a letter, to another 
State, when they are published in a newspaper, and thence cir- 
culated throughout the Union. And now he pretends that these 
statements were made ' without anj' calculation that they were 
to be thrown into the public journals.' Does he reprove the 
indiscretion of tliis guest, who had violated the sanctity of a 
conversation at the hospiiable board ? Fav from it. The public 
is incredulous. It can not be, General Jackson would be so 

etatenient to your own refiection.s. I directed a copy to be inclosed yester- 
day to Mr. Southard. It must confirm any good impression produced by 
my speech." 

The impression made by Mr. Buclianan's letter is still more apparent 
in the following conmiuuicalion of R. P. Letcher to Mr. Clay : 

" Lancaster, August 27, 1827. 

" My Dear Sir — Yours of the ninth instant came to hand last night. 
The one bj' Mr. A., I received a few days since by private hand, from the 
county of Harlan. With your letter of the ninth, Mr. Buchanan's response 
to the hero was received. This answer is well put together. As they 
say, in Connecticut, "there is a great deal of good reading" in Buck's 
reply. It is modest and genteel, yet strong and conclusive. I am truly 
delighted with the manner in which B. lias acquitted himself. I really 
feared and believed he was placed in such a dilemtna, by the General, 
that he could not extricate liimself with any sort of credit. But he has 
cone forth victoriously. I am greatlj^ gratified with the result, and must 
believe it will have a happy effect upon the Presidential election. It is 
impo.ssible it should turn out otherwise. Virginia, after this, will not — 
can not support the General. I never had the least hope of Virginia 
until now. 

" I presume Buck's reply supersedes the necessity of any reference to 
the. conversation in ray room. I am glad of it." 

7 



74 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

■wanting in delicacy and decorum. The guest appeals to him for 
the contirraation of the published statements, and the General 
promptly addresses him a letter, 'in which he unequivocally 
confirms' (says Mr. Carter Beverly*), 'all I have said, regard- 
ing the overture made to him, pending the last Presidential 
election before Congress ; and he asserts a great deal more than 
he ever told me.' " 

But other troubles grew out of the annoying slander. It was 
H favorite dream Avith Clay, to establish, with the new South 
American republics, a great American alliance. Those republics 
had appointed a Congress, at Panama, to consult upon their 
mutual interests, in opposition to Spain. Mr. Clay, who was 
now Secretary of State, desired that the United States should 
co-operate w^ilh them through a special representative. The 

* In 1842, Carter Beverly did the following act of tardy justice to the 
reputation of Mr. Clay : 

"Fredericksburg, Va., April 2, 1842. 

"Dear Sir — On my arrival here yesterday I received your reply to 
my letter of February last, from Middlesex, and feel glad to find that 
the conimunicntiou I then made to you was well received, and kindly 
acknowledged. 

" It is assuredly a matter of high satisfaction to me to believe, that I 
discharged the obligation which feeling and duty dictated, in doing the 
justice I designed, of effacing the indignity cast upon you by the un- 
fortunate, and to me unhappy Fayctteville letter that was, and lias been 
so much the subject of injury to you in the public mind. It is now, 1 
trust, put entirely to rest in the minds of all honorable and candid men, 
of whatever political persuasion; for surely none can, or will hencefor- 
ward presume to countenance the miserable slander that went fortli in that 
communication to the public against you. The entire revocation of it 
given by me ought to overwhelm the author of it with iitter shame and 
mortification; and if I had any light to say, were I in his situation, it 
would be my province, as it should be an incumbent duty on me, to make 
every atonement possible for such an unfounded, unprovoked attack upcn 
your integrity and public fame. 

" Believing that your letter to me, and this my reply, are calculated to 
benefit you in the public mind, I have sent both to ' The Richmond Whig' 
and 'Independent' for publication. 

"I reiterate expressions of health and happiness to you, and remain 
yoiirS; etc." 



THE IJFE OF HENRY CLAY. 75 

time seemed to him to have come for accomplishing his brilliant 
design. The President entered with enthusiasm into the project. 
Randolph, as usual, was found in the opposition. At the close 
of a characlerislic speech, he denounced the concurrence of ihe 
President and Secretary, as "the coalition of Bliiil and Black 
George, — of the puritan and blackleg." 

Conflicts had not been unfrequent between Clay and Ran- 
dolph. The latter, early in Clay's Congressional career, had 
taken exceptions to his rulings, as Speaker, and had published a 
cai'd, which elicited from Mr. Clay a reply. More than once 
they had seemed upon the point of open rupture. 

Perhaps, under ordinary circumstances, the insinuation of 
Randolph would have passed unnoticed, as one of that strange 
man's eccentricities of speecli. But Clay felt that, now, he was 
not himself rich enough in reputation to be generous. His feel- 
ings, lacerated by the thousand stabs of calumny, writhed under 
the last infliction. He had borne heroically open detraction, — 
this covert sneer stung to the quick his proud and sensitive 
soul. He yielded to his angry impulse, and sent to Rjindolph a 
challenge. 

Randolph accepted it. "I have no explanations to give," he 
exclaimed. "1 will not give any. I am called to the field. I 
have agreed to go, and am ready to go." His unconciliatory 
disposition seemed like blood-thirstiness, but it is only justice to 
him to explain that it was not so. 

" The night before the duel," says General James Hamilton of 
Soulh Carolina, " Mr. Randolph sent for me. I found him calm, 
but in a singularly kind and confiding mood. He told me that 
he had something on his mind to tell me. He then remarked, 
'Hamilton, I have determined to receive, without returnino-, 
Clay's fire ; nothing shall induce me to harm a hair of his head ; 
I will not make his wife a widow, or his children orphans. 
Their tears would be shed over his grave ; but when the sod of 
Virginia rests on my bosom, there is not, in this wide world, one 
individual to pay this tribute upon mine." 

When the parties, the next day, had taken their positions. 
Randolph's pistol was accidenlally discharged before the word 



76 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

was given. " The moment tliis event took place, General Jesup. 
Mr. Clay's friend, called out that he would instantly leave the 
ground with his friend, if that occurred again. Mr. Clay, at 
once exclaimed, it was entirely an accident, and begged that the 
gentleman might be allowed to go on. On the word being given, 
Mr. Clay fired without effect, Mr. Randolph discharging his 
pisl.)l in the air. The moment Mr. Clay saw that Mr. Randolph 
had thrown away his fire, with a gush of sensibility, lie instantly 
approached Randolph and said, with an emotion which " (adds 
General Hamilton), "lean never forget, 'I trust in God, my 
dear sir, you are untouched ; after what has occurred, I would 
not have harmed you for a thousand worlds.' " 

Of dueling, Mr. Clay had, previously to this, spoken in the 
following terms : " I owe it to the community to say, that, what- 
ever heretofore I may have done, or by inevitable circumsiances 
miglit be forced to do, no man holds in deeper abhorrence, than 
I di), that pernicious practice. Condemned, as it must be, by 
tlie judgment and philosophy, to say nothing of the religion of 
every thinking man, it is an affair of feeling, about which we 
can not, although we should, reason. Its true corrective will be 
found, when all shall unite, as all ought to unite, in its unquali- 
lied proscription." 



CHAPTER IX. 

The TaiifFof 1824 — Question as to the expediency of a protective tarifF— 
Difference between tiieoiy and practice — Unpopuhirity of tlie protective 
sj-stem at the South — Nullification — Mr. Ci.ay introduces his compro- 
mise tariff, and harmony is restored. 

A BILL to protect American Industry was adopted by the 
House of Rr'presentatives, in 1820, but was lost in the Senate by 
a vote of iwentv-two to twenty-one. In 1824, the cummittee on 
manufaclui-es feporled another bill, recommendiny a high pro- 
tective (aiitf. Mr. Clay had labored assiduously from the first 
to procure the a(lo])ii<>n of such a measure. The reader will 
remember that his cailicr Senatorial efforts were directed to thai 
end. He made a forcible speech upon the subject, in 182J; 
but it was in 1824, that he laid out all his streni>-ih. His ari>-u- 
ment was extended and elaborate. He brDUglu to the subject 
much and varied investigation. He etjuipped himself for an 
arduous parliamentary conflict, for, among his opponents, primui 
inter pares, stood Mr. Webster. Tiie bill was suttcessful. Il 
passed boih Houses of Congress, received the signature of the 
President and became a law. 

While wiih one class in tlie community, the claims of Mr. 
Clav. to be considered a paniot, have been bas<'d upon the 
alvocacy of no measure, so much as upon that of the protective 
system, with another, his pariialiiy for that very policy has beeti 
the occasion for calling in question his political sagacity an ! the 
sotmdness of his statesmanship. It has been justly said, thai no 
system of doctrines can obtain extensive belief, witliout contain- 
ing some element of truth. The con verse is, perhaps, likewise 
true. No system prevails among fallible men, which does not 
contain some aclraixttire of error. We may apply ih.e a.viom. 
A protective tariff is not the sublimation of wisdom, which some 

(77) 



78 THE LIFE OF IIENEY CLAY. 

have regarded it; neither is it tliat offspring of delusion and 
folly, which it has seemed in the eyes of others. In tlieovy, we 
are obliged to confess that such a tarift" appears radically un- 
sound. In practice, it assumes altogether another appearance. 
Such an assertion mio-ht seem strano-e, had it not been seen loner 
ago, and in multiplied instances, that theory and practice do not 
necessarily nor always coincide. 

Theories too often presuppose a state of things which does not 
exist. A thousand circumstances, prone to be disregarded 
because of their seeming insignificance, often demand, in prac- 
tice, from their combined influence, unexpected modifications. 
The force of many influences, also, can not be calculated, until 
the experiment has been tried. A theory of political economy, 
moreover, which may suit one nation, or be fitting at a particu- 
lar time, will not infallibly suit every other nation and be adapted 
to all times alike. 

, Because a protective tariff is not needed now, it is becoming 
common to suppose that it was always a useless and an absurd 
institution. Because the theory of protection is liable to serious 
objections, it is argued that, under all circumstances, it must be 
unphilosophical and impolitic. 

But we say to the objector, that he proceeds too fast. His 
arguments are truly plausible, but they presuppose a state of 
things which does not exist, — which never has existed. They 
proceed too much upon the fallacious ground, that this is a per- 
fect world, and that the nations of it bear toward each other the 
relation of a united, confiding, unselfish brotherhood. If this 
supposition were true, then a protective tariff would be to the 
last degree absurd and mischievous. But unfortunately it is the 
furthest possible from being true. 

Upon the supposition of the theorizer, the argument which is 
regarded the strongest against protection would be absolutely 
unanswerable. This argument is, that each nation should devote 
itself to that branch of industiy, in which it can engage with the 
most facility, and to which its natural advantages most clearly 
point. If that be agriculture, then let agriculture flourish ; if it 
be commerce, then let commerce reign ; if manufactures, then 



THE LIFE OF IIENllY CLAY. 79 

let workshops abound ; but let nothing be forced into a pre- 
mature existence, for thereby risk will be incurred, — danger of 
continual frost to the hot-house plants which you have reared; 
or else at special expense they must be shielded, — expense bring- 
ing no return, but ending in inevitable loss. 

This reasoning would do if all governments were Utopias; — if 
the rule, to love our neighbor as ourselves, was recognized and 
obeyed in the intercourse of nations ; but who does not know, 
that a thousand of the expenses of government arise from the 
fact that the opposite of all this is true ? Who does not know 
that it would, according to theory, be infinitely better for a 
nation's wealth and prosperity, to disband its armies, to dismantle 
its forts, to convert into trading vessels iis ships of war ? But 
who would advise the experiment ? Who does not see that 
certain tendencies belonging to depraved humanity, brand it as 
impracticable ? 

Each nation, in this selfish world, must stand upon the defen- 
sive ; each must in a measure contain within itself all needed 
resources ; each must be capable, when occasion, which is not 
unfrequent, requires to occupy an attitude of self-dependence ; 
each nation must, in short, be a microcosm, where all the pursuits 
of men, to a greater or less extent, shall be followed, and where, 
for all their absolute wants, there shall be suitable provision. 

A country may, from circumstances of climate and soil, be 
plainly pointed to agriculture, as the surest source of its wealth ; 
but a country exclusively agricultural is plunged into the deepest 
embarrassment and distress, when war intercepts the supplies 
of commerce, and withholds the products of the workshop. 
Another country, finding but a scanty subsistence from its barren 
hillsides, may see the finger of Providence pointing to running 
streams and commodious harbors, as adapted to do that for its 
prosperity, which an unkindly soil refuses to do ; but the instinct 
of self-defense forbids an exclusive attention to manufactures 
and trade, lest sudden hostilities should confront the people with 
starvation. 

Thus the theory of legislation is modified by unavoidable and 
ilangerous contingencies. A system of safeguards and checks 



80 THE LIFE OF HENKY CLAY. 

upon dishonesty, often complicated and perplexing, but con- 
fessedly necessary, governs the daily business dealings of 
men. Nations are but collections of men of like passions, and 
for their mutual security must, therefore, submit to a similar 
control. 

But in some instances, and the earlier condition of our country 
constituted one of such, other arguments plead for a protective 
system with special power. War produces for an agriculiural 
people the results that we have indicated. The foreign supply 
is <ut off. The demand is, however, imperative, and domestic 
labor is called upon to supply the deficiency. Manufactories, 
therefore, spring up upon every hand, and, if hostilities are long- 
continued, draw to themselves a large amount of the labor and 
capital of the country. No part of the country, as it often 
happens, is more benefited by this direction of industry, or more 
imperatively demands it, than the agricultural. 

But peace returns and brings back the abundant products of 
the foreign loom and anvil. Domestic fabrics are driven from 
the market by perhaps a better article, furnished at a cheaper 
price. Hence, an interesting question rises at once for solution : 
Shall the immense capital embarked in manufactures be exposed 
to inevitable shipwreck, or shall Government extend to it a while 
the protection which peace has suddenly withdrawn ? 

Meanwhile, those who had been benefited begin to complain. 
It is hard, they say, that we, who have nothing whatever to do 
with the workshop, should be compelled to bear the burden of 
its support, and be forced tp take an inferior article at an exor- 
bitant price. But the complaint, though plausible, is founded 
upon a forgetfulness of benefits absolutely essential, ali-eady 
received, and upon a forgetfulness that obligations are mutual ; — 
that it would be wrong to devote to destruction, at the moment 
they cease to receive benefit from it, that capital which, by their 
own wants and importunity, was directed into its existing chan- 
nels. The aig-ument is supported, also, by the consideration, 
that the demanded protection is only a temporary expedient ; 
that it is not absolute and indefinite support which is asked for, 
but, just fur the present, a little "material aid." 



THE LIFE ^F HENRY CLAY. 81 

The problem of a protective policy, llierefore, it will be seen, 
resolves itself into a very dift'erent question from tins: Shall a 
country, prematurely and without occasion, quicken into life 
manufactures by a protective tariff? The true question is more 
generally a double one, namely : First, shall a country, by its 
vaiiety ?f interests, be ready for a healthful self-dependence? 
Secondly, when by unavoidable contingencies a new and im- 
portant interest is created, shall it be crushed out of existence 
the moment that it ceases to be profitable, when by a liule 
encouragement, it might, at no remote period, instead of needing 
assistance, become a right arm of stiength ? 

In our own country, the manufacturing interest received a 
powerful impulse by the war of 1812. Shortly after the close 
of hostilities, John C. Calhoun advocated a tariff designed to 
confer protection upon it. We must consider it an act of liberal 
and enlif'-hiened statesmanship in him, for to his own slate the 
benefit was not so much to accrue, as to a distant section, ch.ai-ac- 
terized by different institutions. The tariff law of 1816 e.vtended 
encouragement to manufaciui'cs, without elevating them into a 
monopoly, or stimulating them unduly by excessive protection. 
The tariff" of 1824 can not, we fear, plead entire innocence of 
such an imputation. 

National pride is easily provoked to go too far. It was a fond 
ambition of Mr. Clay to render his country independently great. 
Seeino- the immense resources of every kind, of which it could 
boast, he believed that it might reach its full measure of pros- 
perity by inward development. He, therefore, advocated a sys- 
tem of protection which should result in the exclusion of foreign 
competition. But this was to exalt the means above the end ; 
It was to stimulate, which is injurious, rather than to pi'oteci ; it 
v.lis to push manufactures beyond their proper limits : to create 
a monopolv ; to subordinate the interests of trade to the interests 
of the workshop ; to aim, in a prejudicial way, at independence, 
which is unattainable, rather than at self-dependence, which is 
Doth attainable and desirable. 

The consequence was, ll.at while one section of the country 
and one powerful monied interest were loud in their praises of 



82 THE LIFE OF IH^TRY CLAY. 

the protective system, and eager to retain it, another section and 
another interest murmured against it as unjust and oppressive, 
and threatened, unless it were repealed, to employ the most ex- 
treme measures of redress. 

South- Carolina especially denounced the law as unconstitu- 
tional and odious ; threatened to disregard it, and entered upon 
a course which bore the appearance of open rebellion. 

General Jackson was at the head of Government. He 
detested the law almost as much as South- Carolina, but since 
it was a law, he determined that, at all hazards, it should 
be obeyed. Inflammatory meetings were held at Charleston. 
Open resistance to the officers of Government was recom- 
mended. Materials for war were collected. Meanwhile United 
States troops were sent to the disafl:ected Slate. Jackson, 
it was believed, would bombard, at the least provocation, 
the city of Charleston, and hang as traitors Hayne, Calhoun, 
and others of the leaders. Intense excitement pervaded the 
country. 

Randolph, broken down with age and yet more by disease, 
was roused by the sounds of coming strife. "Lifted into his 
carriage like an infant," says his biographer, "he went from 
county to county, and spoke with a power that effectually aroused 
the slumbering multitudes." "In the course of his speech at 
Buckingham, he is reported to have said, ' Gentlemen, I am 
filled with the most gloomy apprehensions for the fate of the 
Union. I can not express to you how deeply I am penetrated 
with a sense of the danger, which, at this moment, threatens its 
existence. If Madison filled the Executive chair, he might be 
bullied into some compromise. If Monroe was in power, he 
might be co&xed into some adjustment of this difficulty. But 
Jackson is obstinate, headstrong, and fond of fight. I fear mat- 
ters must come to an open rupture. If so, this Union is gone !* 
Then pausing for near a minute, raising his finger in that em- 
phatic maaner, so peculiar to his action as a speaker, and seem- 
ing, as it were, to breathe more freely, he continued, — ' There is 
one man, and one man only, who can save this Union, — that 
man is Henry Clay. I know he has the power. I believe 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 83 

he will be found to have the patriotism and lirmness equal to 
the occasion.' " 

Mr. Randolph Avas not mistaken. Mr. Clay proved himself 
to have alike "the power," "the patriotism," and the "firm- 
ness." Several years had elapsed between the passage of the 
tariff bill of 1824, and the events which we are describing. 
Various modifications had been introduced. Meanwhile Mr. 
Clay had retired from his seat in the cabinet, had returned to 
his home, and by his grateful State had been again sent to the 
national councils. He was now in the Senate. Advocating still 
his favorite policy, he came forward in January, 1832, with the 
foUowinof resolution : 

"Resolved, That the existing duties upon articles imported 
from foreign countries, and not coming into competition with 
similar articles made or produced within the United States, 
ouo-ht to be forthwith abolished, except the duties upon wines 
and silks, and that those ought to be reduced ; and that the 
committee on finance be instructed to report a bill accordingly." 
A bill, fiamed according to this resolution, was adopted in 
July, 1832. But every measure which avowed protection as its 
object, Avas regarded by the opponents of the system unconsti- 
tutional. The opposition increased, especially throughout the 
Southern States. At least South-Carolina assumed the attitude 
which we have described. 

At this juncture, Mr. Clay evinced how great and unselfish 
was his patriotism. In the language of one, who was not a 
political fiiend, " with parental fondness, he cherished his Amer- 
ican System, — wilh unyielding pertinacity, contended for it to 
the last extremity ; — but, Avhen it became a question between 
that and the integrity of the Union, he did not hesitate ; like 
Abraham, he was ready to sacrifice his own offspring on the 
altar of his country, and to see the fond idols he had cherished 
perish one by one before his lingering eyes." 

He introduced a bill which received the name of the Compro- 
mise Tariff' Bill. From it, for the sake of his country's peace, he 
excluded most (5f those features which were odious to the South, 
however fonJlv they had been cherislied bv himself. Yet it Avas 



84 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

truly a compromise, for the enemies of his system had also intro- 
duced a bill designed to be destructive of proteclion. The new 
tariff bill of Mr. Clay provided for a gradual reduction of duties, 
xmtil 1842, at which time the rate was to continue at twenty per 
centum until further legislation. His sacri6ce was not unavail- 
ing. The bill received the approval of both Houses of Congress, 
was signed by the President, and became a law, March, 1833. 
Thus the country, which to all human appearances had been 
upon the verge of civil war, was again rescued from its danger 
by the firmness and the patriotism of Henry Clay. 



CHAPTER X. 

Mt. Clay is again defeated as a candidate for the Presidency — Ciay and 
Jacksfni as rival leaders — Removal of tlie Deposits by the President — 
Mr. Clay's indignant opposition — Resolutions of censure — ^The Uhero- 
kces — Lavish expenditure — The expunging resolution — Tlie sub-treas- 
uiy bill — Dawning of better times. 

In 1831, Mr. Clat was nominated by his friends for the 
Presidency, but slander had accomplished its intended work. 
Jackson, his opponent, was borne into office by an immense 
majority. 

But this was not the whole of his defeat. It was the special 
labor of the Executive to undo all the long-cherished, long-sirug- 
gled-for measures of Mr. Clay. The veto power was used with 
unprecedented frequency. First, a bill which had been passed 
to renew the Charter of the United States Bank, returned with 
the President's negaiive. This was followed by the rejection of 
a bill, adopted by large majorities, for the distribution of the 
Public Lands amono- the several States. The system, in short, 
which with infinite pains and with a lifetime of labor, Mr. Clay 
had succeeded in building up, he now saw remorselessly over- 
thrown. His iron-willed opponent had seized him at an advan- 
tage, and seemed determined to make the most of his triumph. 
Mr. Clav ruled still with almost resistless sway in Congress, 
but what availed it, when, a short mile from the Capitol, sat one 
who, with a dash of his pen, could undo the result of weeks of 
'.''w'islaiion. Mr. Clay in the Senate murmured against the veto 
power, but the Constitution conferred it, and Avhat could be 
done but to submit. 

But not even here did the President stop. Not content with 
the unlimited use of constitutional privilpges, he overstepped the 



86 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

prescribed bounds, and made use of what his most devoted 
admirers must acknowledge to be, at least, doubtful prerogatives. 

Congress, in March, 1833, had declared by special resolu- 
tion, that the Government Deposits, in the opinion of the House, 
might safely be continued in the Bank of the United States. 
But the President had determined that they should be removed, 
and when was he known to hesitate in the execution of any 
measure upon which he had decided ? The Secretary of the 
Treasury was directed to remove them. In the face of the action 
of Congress and the express terms of the Constitution defining 
his duties, he would not obey. The President dismissed him 
from his cabinet and substituted in his place the Attorney Gen- 
eral, Mr. Taney. The new Secretary was more compliant. He 
issued the necessary directions, and the Deposits were removed. 

Congress was outraged. The action of the President met 
with a loud burst of indignation. The military despotism which 
Mr. Clay had deprecated, when he alluded to the course of 
Jackson in the Seminole war, seemed about to be established. 
Mr. Clay stood forth as the champion of the opposition. He in- 
troduced resolutions of censure, and supported them by a power- 
ful speech. The war between the two most inflexible and popu- 
lar men of the nation was fairly joined and at its hight. Clat 
gained, apparently, the victory. The resolutions of censure were 
adopted, but the victory was only in appearance. Little did 
Jackson regard resolutions of censure, when his mind was settled 
upon the propriety of any course. He was not to be crushed by 
words. He moved on, as though nothing had happened. 

The violence done to the financial interests of the country 
occasioned deep embarrassments. Petitions poured in from 
every quarter. Mr. Clay again was in the van and the thickest 
of the fight. To the President of the Senate, Mr. Van Buren, 
he addressed himself in terms of eloquent entreaty and remon- 
strance. 'In twenty-four hours,' said he, ' the executive branch 
could adopt a measure which would aifurd an efficacious and 
substantial remedy, and re-establish confidence. And those who, 
in this chamber, support the administi-ation, could not render a 
better service than to repair to the executive mansion, and, 



THE IJFB OF IIKNRY CLAY. 8Y 

placing before the chief magistrate the naked and undisguised 
truth, prevail upon him to retrace his steps and abandon his 
fetal expei-iment. No one, sir, can perform that duty Avith more 
propriety than yourself. You can, if you will, induce him to 
change his course. To you, then, sir, in no unfriendly spiiit, 
but Avith feelings softened and subdued by the deep distress 
which pervades every class of our countrymen, I make the 
appeal. By your official and personal relations Avith the Presi- 
dent, you maintain Avith him an intercourse which I neither enjoy 
nor covet. Go to him and tell him, without exaggeration, but 
in the language of truth and sincerity, the actual condition of 
his bleeding country. Tell him it is nearly ruined and undone, 
by the measures which he has been induced to put in operation. 
Tell him that his experiment is operating on the nation like the 
philosopher's experiment upon a convulsed animal in an ex- 
hausted receiver, and that it must expire in agony, if he does 
not pause, give it free and sound circulation, and sutler the 
energies of the people to be revived and restored. 

"Tell him that in a single city more than sixty bankruptcies, 
involving a loss of upAvard of fifteen millions of dollars, have 
occurred. Tell him of the alarming decline in the A'alue of all 
property ; of the depreciation of all the products of industry ; 
of the stagnation in every branch of business, and of the close 
of numerous manufacturing establishments, which, a feAV short 
months ago, Avere in active and flourishing operation. Depict to 
him, if you can find language to portray, the heart-rending 
wretchedness of thousands of the workino--classes cast out of 
employment. Tell him of the tears of helpless widoAvs, no 
longer able to earn ^heir bread ; and of unclad and unfed 
oi-phans, who have been driven, by his policy, out of the busy 
pursuits in Avhich, but yesterday, they Avere gaining an honest 
liAX'lihood. 

" Say to him, that if fii'mness be honorable, Avhen guided by 
truth and justice, it is intimatel}' allied to another quality of the 
most pei-nicious tendency, in the prosecution of an errf^neous 
system. Tell him hoAV much more ti'ue glory is to be Avon bv 
retracing false steps, ili;ui by blimllv I'usliing nu aniil liis comiirv 



88 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

is overwhelmed in bankruptcy and ruin. Tell him of the ardent 
attachment, the unbounded devotion, the enthusiastic gratitude 
toward him, so often signally manifested by the American people, 
and that they deserve, at his hands, better treatment. Tell him 
to guard himself against the possibility of an odious comparison, 
with tliat worst of the Roman emperors, who, contemplating 
with indiflerence the conflagration of the mistress of the world, 
regaled himself during the terrific scene, in the throng of his 
dancino- courtiers. 

" if you desire to secure for yourself the reputation of a 
public benefactor, describe to him truly the universal distress 
already produced, and the certain ruin which must ensue from 
perseverance in his measures. Tell him that he has been abused, 
deceived, betrayed, by the wicked counsels of unprincipled men 
around him. Inform him that all eflorts in Congress, to alleviate 
or terminate the public distress, are paralyzed and likely to prove 
totally unavailing, from his influence upon a large portion of the 
members who are unwilling to withdraw their support, or to lake 
a course repugnant to his wishes and feelings. Tell him that, in 
his bosom alone, under actual circumstances, does the power 
abide to relieve the country ; and that, unless he opens it to 
conviction, and corrects the errors of his administration, no 
human imagination can conceive, and no human tongue can 
express the awful consequences which may follow. Entreat him 
to pause and to reflect, that there is a point beyond which human 
endurance can not go ; and let him not drive this brave, generous 
and patriotic people to madness and despair." 

Wiio will deny that these were the words of a lofty patriot- 
ism, — a patriotism higher than polidcal animosity ; higher than 
disappointed ambition ; higlier than either revenge for the de- 
struction of a favorite policy, or vindictiveness for personal 
wrongs. In those eloquent sentences it is not for himself, but 
for his country, that the noble-hearted orator is pleading. 

But the conflict was all in vain. The President, proof against 
remonstrance ; against the evidences of distress ; against the 
censures of Congress, pursued his own inflexible course. 

Continually, upon difl'erent subjects, the President and the 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 89 

Senator were coming in conflict. The details of their opposition 
consiiluies largely the exciting history of that period. They 
were agreed upon scarcely a single measure of foreign or domes- 
tic policy. Sianding forth as the acknowledged champions of 
different political creeds, and absorbing, by their commanding 
positions and striking qualities, the exclusive attention of the 
public, each seemed to embody in himself the whole executive 
force of his respective party. Whatever either did possessed the 
significance, not merely of an individual's action, but of the 
expression of the will of half a mighty nation. Whenever they 
came in conflict, it was not as two knights joining in single com- 
bat, but as an encounter upon the issue of which were Iremblinof 
the destinies of two powerful armies. 

In 1834, President Jackson, with his characteristic rashness, 
would have plunged us into a war with France. In the treaty 
of Palis, 1831, Fiance had agreed to pay the United States 
twenty- five millions of fiancs, for aggressions made by that 
power upon our commerce, during the wars in which she was 
engaged, from 1800 to 1817. The money was not promptly 
paid. Jackson, therefore, recommended reprisals upon French 
property. A war would, of course, have been the result of such 
a desperate remedy. Mr. Clay interposed to prevent so disas- 
trous a step. As chairman of the committee on foreign rela- 
tions, he reported a resolution to the effect, " that it was inex- 
pedient at that time, to pass any law, vesting in the President 
authority for making reprisals upon French pi-operty, in the 
contingency of provision not being made for paying the United 
States the indemnity stipulated by the treaty of 1831, during 
the existing session of the French Chambers." 

One like Clay, of indomitable courage and Roman firmness, 
was needed in the Senate Chamber, to curb the headstronff 
rashness of the Executive. The times, perhaps, demanded a 
President of the boldness, the decision, the inflexibility of Jack- 
son. But energy like his is, at the same time, eminently dan- 
gerous. We can not know what disastrous direction it might have 
taken, had not Providence, at the critical period, bestowed upon 
the nation, one capable of holding the strong man in check. 
8 



90 THE LIFE OF IIFNEY CLAY. 

But, among move exciting topics, Mr. Clay did not neglect 
the calls of philanthropy, nor omit his watchfulness over the 
financial interests of his country. The oppressed instinctively 
looked to him for redress of wrongs. His high-toned generosity 
enjoyed as wide a celebrity as his wonderful eloquence. The 
poor Indians found in him a defender. The Cherokees, linger- 
ing with reo-retful affection about their old huntinff-o-rounds and 
the graves of their fathers, were treated with little consideration 
by the impatient purchasers of their lands. Mr. Clay appeared 
as their advocate against the people of Georgia. He earnestly 
deprecated the wanton severity with which the laws of that State 
were administered against the unfortunate red-men. 

Against excessive expenditures, he also interposed his influ- 
ence. A bill, providing for immense outlays, for the purpose 
of fortifying our harbors, in view of an apprehended war with 
France, met with his prompt resistance. 

But his position, through those eventful years, was mainly one 
of conflict. Some of his battles he was compelled to fight over 
again. The resolution of censure, which, in 1834, the Senate 
had adopted against President Jackson, Mr. Benton sought to 
have expunged the following year. The Senate refused, by the 
decisive vote of thirty-nine to seven. But, two or thiee years 
wrought changes in the legislative chambers. In 1837, Mr. 
Benton renewed the effort, and this time, under circumstances 
which insured success. Yet Mr. Clay came forward to battle 
against odds, with the same dauntless spirit with which, three 
years before, he had battled under the assurance of victory. 

"Mr President," he exclaimed, "what patriotic purpose is to 
be accomplished by this expunging resolution ! What new 
honor or fresh laurels will it win for our common country ? Is 
the power of the Senate so vast, that it ought to be cii'cum- 
scribed, and that of the President so resti-icted, that it ought to 
be extended? What power has the Senate? None, separately. 
It can only act jointly with the other House, or jointly with the 
Executive. And although the theory of the Constitution sup- 
poses that when consulted by him, it may freely give an affirma- 
tive or negative response, according to the practice as it now 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 91 

exists, it has lost the faculty of pronouncing the negative mono- 
syllable. When the Senate expresses its deliberate judgment, in 
the form of resolution, that resolution has no compulsory force, 
but appeals only to the dispassionate intelligence, the calm 
reason, and the sober judgment of the community. The Senate 
has no army, no navy, no patronage, no lucrative offices, n )r 
glittering honors to bestow. Around us there is no swarm c.f 
greedy expectants, rendering us homage, anticipating our wishes, 
and ready to execute our commands. 

"How is it wich the President? Is he powerless? He is 
felt from one extremity to the other of this vast Republic. By 
means of principles which he has introduced, and innovations 
which he has made in our institutions, alas ! but too much 
countenanced by Congress and a confiding people, he exercises 
uncontrolled the power of the State. In one hand he holds the 
purse, and in the other brandishes the sword of the country. 
Myriads of dependents and partisans, scattered over the land, 
are ever ready to sing hosannas to him, and to laud to the skies 
whatever he does. He has swept over the Government, during 
the last eight years, like a tropical tornado. Every department 
exhibits traces of the ravages of the storm. Take, as one 
example, the Bank of the United States. -No institution could 
have been more popular with the people, with Congress, and 
with State Legislatures. None ever better fulfilled the great 
purposes of its establishment. But it unfortunately incurred the 
displeasure of the President ; he spoke, and the bank lies pros- 
trate. And those who were loudest in its praise are now loudest 
in iis condemnation. What object of his ambition is unsatisfied ? 
When disabled from age any longer to hold the scepter of power, 
he designates his successor and transmits it to his favorite. 
What more does he want? Must we blot, deface, and mutilate 
the records of the country, to punish the presumptiousness of 
expressing an opinion contrary to his OAvn ? 

" What patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this ex- 
punging resolution ? Can you make that not to be which has 
been ? Can you ei-adicate from memory and from history the 
fact, that in March, 1834, a majority of the Senate of the United 



92 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

States passed the resolution wliich excites your enmity? Is it 
your vain and wicked object to arrogate to yourselves that power 
of anniliilaiing the past, which has been denied to Omnipotence 
itself? Do you intend to thrust your hands into our hearts, 
and to pluck out the deeply-rooted convictions which are there? 
or is t your design merely to stigmatize us? You tan not 
Btigraatize us. 

' Ne'er yet did base dishonor blur our name.' 

Standing securely upon our conscious rectitude, and bearing 
aloft the shield of the Constitution of our country, your puny 
efforts aie impotent, and we defy all your power. Put the 
majority of 1834 in one scale, and that by which this expunging 
resoluiion is to be carried in the other, and let truth and justice, 
in heaven above and on the earth below, and liberty and patriot- 
ism decide the preponderance. 

" What patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this ex- 
punging ? Is it to appease the wrath, and to heal the wounded 
pride of the chief magistrate? If he be really the hero that his 
friends represent him, he must despise all mean condescension, 
all groveling sycophancy, all self-degradation and self-abasement. 
He would reject with scorn and contempt, as unworthy of his 
fame, your black scratches, and your baby lines in the fair 
records of his country. Black lines ! Black lines ! Sir, 1 hope 
the Secretary of the Senate will presei've the pen with which he 
may inscribe them, and present it to that Senator of the majority 
whom he may select, as a proud trophy, to be transmitted to his 
descendants. And hereafter, when we shall lose the forms of 
our free institutions, — all that now remain to us, — some future 
American monarch, in gratitude to those by whose means he has 
been enabled, upon the ruins of civil liberty, to erect a throne, 
and to commemorate especially this expunging resolution, may 
institute a new order of knighthood, and confer on it the appro- 
priate name of the 'knight of the black lines.' 

"But why should I detain the Senate, or needlessly waste my 
breath in fruitless exertions ? The decree has gone forth. It is 
one of urgency, too. The deed is to be done ; that foul deed, 
like the blood-stained hands of the guiUy Macbeth, all ocean's 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 93 

waters will never wash out. Proceed, then, to the noble work 
which lies before you, and like other skillful executioners, do it 
quickly. And wlien yuu have perpetrated it, go home to the 
people and tell them wliat glorious honors you have achieved for 
our common country. Tell them that you have extinguished 
one of the brightest and purest lights that ever burned at the 
Mar of civil liberty. Tell them that you have silenced one of 
the noblest batteries that ever thundered in defense of the Con- 
stitution, and biavely spiked the cannon. Tell them that, hence- 
forward, no matter what daring or outrageous act any President 
may perform, you have forever hermetically sealed the mouth 
of the Senale. Tell tliem that he may fearlessly assume what 
power he pleases ; snaich from its lawful custody the public 
purse, command a miliiary deiachment to enter the halls of the 
Capiiol, overawe Congress, trample down the Constitution, and 
raze every bulwark of freedom ; but that the Senate must stand 
mute, in silent submission, and not dare to raise its opposing 
voice. That it must wait until a House of Representatives, 
humbled and subdued like itself, and a majority of it composed 
of the partisans of the President, shall prefer articles of im- 
peachment. Tell them, finally, that you have restored the 
glorious doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance ; and 
if the people do not pour out their indignation and imprecations, 
I have yet to learn the character of American freemen." 

The lion of the Whig party was now fairly at bay. Upon the 
field of so many former triumphs in his own proper province, 
the Senate Chamber, he was at last experiencing defeat. With- 
out, the appearance of his beloved country was in his eyes, to 
the last degree, deplorable. Contradictory systems of legisla- 
tion had wrought their disastrous work. Universal depression 
brooded over all the financial interests of the country. Every 
newspaper teemed with accounts of new bankruptcies. The 
fearful times of 1837 are still remembered by business men with 
shuddering. 

The pressure upon the State Banks, where were placed the 
deposits of the United States Bank, which Jackson had removed, 
drove Mr. Van Buren, the President, to a new resort. An extr» 



94 THE LIFE OF HENKY CLAY, 

session of Congress was called, to meeL in September, 1837, 
The President, in his message to that body, recommended a 
system of finance, according to which only gold and silver were 
to be received by Government, in payment of revenue. The 
bill, which was reported agreeably to the message, received the 
name of the Sub-Treasury bill. 

Against this Mr. Clay stood forth in strong opposition. 

" The great evil under which the country labors," said he, 
"is the suspension of the banks to pay specie ; the total derange- 
m.ent in all domestic exchanges, and the paralysis which has 
come over the whole business of the country. In regard to the 
currency, it is not that a given amount of bank-notes will not 
now command as much as the same amount of specie would 
have done prior to the suspension ; but it is tlie future, the 
danger of an inconvertible paper money being indefinitely or 
permanently fixed upon the people, that fills them with appre- 
hensions. Our great object should be to re-establish a sound 
currency, and thereby to restore the exchanges, and revive the 
business of the country. 

" The first impression which the measures brought forward 
by the administration make, is, that they consist of temporai-y 
expedients, looking to the supply of the necessities of the 
Treasury ; or so far as any of them possess a permanent char- 
acter, its tendency is rather to aggravate than alleviate the 
sufferings of the. people. None of them proposes to rectify the 
disorders in the actual currency of the country ; but the people, 
the States and their banks, are left to shift for themselves, as 
they may or can. The administration, after having intervened 
between the States and their banks, and taken them into their 
Federal service, without the consent of the States ; after having 
puffed and praised them ; after having brought them, or con- 
ti'ibuted to bring them into their present situation, now suddenly 
turns its back upon them, leaving them to their fate ! It is 
not content with that, it must absolutely discredit their issues. 
And the very people, who were told by the administration that 
these banks would supply them with a better currency, are now 
lefi to struggle as they can, with the very currency which the 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 95 

Government recommended to them, but which it now refuses 
itself to receive ! 

" The professed object of the administration, is to establish 
what it terms the Currency of the Constitution, which it proposes 
to accomplish by restricting the Federal Government, in all 
receipts and payments, to the exclusive use of specie, and by 
refusing all bank paper, whether convertible or not. It disclaima 
nil purposes of crippling or putting down the banks of the States ; 
but we shall better determine the design or the effect of the 
measures recommended, by considering them together, as one 
system. 

" The first is the sub-treasuries, which are to be made the 
depositories of all the specie collected and paid out for the 
service of the General Government, discrediting and refusing all 
the notes of the States, although payable and paid in specie. 

" Second, a bankrupt law for the United States, leveled at all 
the State banks, and authorizing the seizure of the effects of any 
one of them that stops payment, and the administration of theif 
effects under the Federal authority exclusively. 

"Third, a particular law for the District of Columbia, by 
which all the corporations and people of the District, under 
severe pains and penalties, are prohibited from circulating, sixty 
days after the passage of the law, any paper whatever not con- 
vertible into specie on demand, and are made liable to prosecu* 
tion by indictment. 

"Fourth, and last, the bill to suspend the payment of the 
fourth installment to the States, by the provisions of which the 
deposit banks, indebted to the Government, are placed at the 
discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. 

" It is impossible to consider this system without perceiving 
that it is aimed at, and if carried out must terminate in, the total 
subversion of the State banks ; and that they will all be placed 
at the mercy of the Federal Government. It is in vain to protest 
that there exists no desio-n ao-ainst them. The effect of those 
measures can not be misunderstood. 

"And why this new experiment, or untried expedient? The 
people of this coixnlrv are lired of experiments. Ought not the 



06 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

administration itself to cease with them ? ought it not to take 
Avarniiii'- from the events of recent eleciions? Above all. sh<iu!d 
not the iSenaie, constituted as it is, be the last body to lend itself 
to further experiments upon the business and happiness of this 
great people ?" 

Mr. Clay opposed to the Sub-treasury scheme, at every stage, 
the same determined resistance ; but, after a hard-fouoht and 
protracted contest, afier <.>btaining ground inch by inch, it was 
carried through both Houses of Congress, and became a law in 
July, 1840. 

Mr. Clay now stood amid the wrecks of all his proud schemes 
for the aggrandizement of his country. The Iconoclast, the 
ruthless image br«;aker, had passed through them and over- 
thrown them all. His patriotic heart swelled with grit^f and 
indignation, as he beheld the desolations of hi.-» beloved land. 
Through years his adversaries had exulted in continual victoiy. 
He had been compelled to contemplate, in sorrow, the impotence 
of his most heroic efforts. Still, throuirh darkness and trial he 
battled on. The people would awake to their senses, he believed, 
and better times would come. At last, distant murmuiings 
announced the coming of that looked-for period. The people 
were rising in their majesty. Hope again sat upon the brow 
and lighted the eyes of the waiting statesman. How well that 
hope was justified, and how long the dawning retained its hues 
of premise, the coming pages -vmII disclose. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Enthusiasm of 1840 — ^Extra session of Congress — Death of Harrison — De- 
fection of Tyler — Grief of Mr. Clay, at the subversion of his cherished 
hopes — He advocates a tariff, designed for protection — Resigns his 
seat — His farewell to the Senate. 

Seldom has our country been the scene of such enthusiasm, as 
that which characterized the Presidential canvass of 1840. The 
interests of the country, as we have shown, were at the lowest 
stage of depression. In a change of policy the people fondly 
hoped to see business revive, and prosperity again smile upon 
the land. The reaction had fairly come, and in its train, its 
usual concomitants, extravagant expectations for the future, and 
almost delirious excitement. Immense mass meetings were held 
in every part of the country ; torchlight processions paraded the 
streets at night ; banners were painted, bearing every possible 
reference to the hero of Tippecanoe and the Thames ; log-cabins 
were erected, and a sudden passion for "hard cider" seized 
upon the stoutest advocates of temperance. Such extremes 
looked almost like madness, but they were the violent rebound 
of a nation's feelings after years of disaster. The twelve years, 
during which they had idolized the hero of New Orleans and 
adhered to his policy, had not brought the promised blessings. 
Weary with waiting, they rose by a movement almost unanimous, 
demanding other laws and another order of rulers. 

A convention met at Harrisburg. Henry Clay, it was ex- 
pected, would be their choice ; but the American people, it the 
opinion of the convention, would be more enthusiastic towaj J a 
military chieftain. General Harrison received the nomination. 
Nobly throwing aside every consideration of personal disappoint- 
ment, Mr. Clay devoted himself to the success of the candidate. 
9 ( ti? 1 



98 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

By an immense majority, General Harrison was borne intc 
power. 

The new President, as one of his first acts, called an extra 
session of Congress. The condition of the country demanded, 
he believed, immediate measures of relief. Congress convened 
the last day of May, 1841. Meanwhile, President Harrison, to 
the unutterable grief of the nation, had died. John Tyler, the 
Vice President, was occupying the Executive Chair. But the 
country, relying upon the soundness of the men whom it had 
elevated to power, was yet sanguine and hopeful. 

Congress set to work, at once, to lepeal the obnoxious laws of 
previous sessions. Tlie Sub-treasury was abolished. A general 
bankrupt law was established. A bill to create a National Bank 
was adopted. Every thing seemed to move on, as the party in 
power could wish. But suddenly, and from an unexpected 
quarter, came a check. The Bank bill returned with the Presi- 
dent's veto. This announcement fell upon Congress and upon 
the country like a thunderbolt. The grief and rage of one party 
and the exultation of the other were extreme. Mr. Clay, who 
had entered upon the Session full of spirit, changed his tones 
from hopefulness to anxiety. When the veto was announced, 
he arose and addressed the Senate in the followino- words : 

" Mr. President, the bill, which forms the present subject of 
our deliberations, had passed both Houses of Congress by de- 
cisive majorities, and, in conformity with the requirement of the 
Constitution, was presented to the President of the United States 
for his consideration. He has returned it to the Senate, in which 
it originated, according to the direction of the Constitution, with 
a messao-e announcino- his veto of the bill and containino- his 
objections to its passag-e. And the question now to be decided, 
is, shall the bill pass by the required Constitutional majority of 
two-thirds, the President's objections notwithstanding. Know- 
ing, sir, but too well that no such majority can be obtained, and 
that the bill must fall, I would have been rejoiced to have found 
myself at liberty to abstain from saying one word on (his painful 
occasion. But tl-.e President has not allowed me to give a silent 
vole. I IJiink, wiili all if'si)ecl and dc-ference to him, he has nui 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 99 

reciprocated the friendly spirit of concession and compromise, 
which animated Congress in the provisions of this bill, and 
especially in the modification of the sixteenth fundamenlal condi- 
tion of the Bank. He has commented, I think with undeserved 
severity, on that part of the bill ; he has used, I am sure un- 
intentionally, harsh, if not reproachful language ; and he has 
made the very concession which was prompted as a peace-olTer- 
ing, and from friendly considerations, the cause of stronger and 
more decided disapprobation of the bill. Standing in the rela- 
tion to that bill which I do, and especially to the exceptionable 
clause, the duty which I owe to the Senate, and to the country, 
and self-respect impose upon me the obligation of, at least, 
attempting the vindication of a measure which has met with a 
fate so unmerited and so unexpected. 

"On (he fourth of April last, the lamented Harrison, the 
President of the United States, paid the debt of nature. Presi- 
dent Tyler, who, as Vice-President, succeeded to the duties of 
that office, arrived in the city of Washington on the sixth of that 
• month. He found the whole metropolis wrapped in gloom, every 
heart filled with sorrow and sadness, every eye streaming with 
tears, and the surrounding hills yet flinging back the echo of the 
bells which were tolled on that melancholy occasion. On enter- 
ing the Presidential mansion, he contemplated the pale body of 
his predecessor stretched before him, and clothed in the black 
habiliments of death. At that solemn moment, I have no doubt 
thai the heart of President Tyler was overflowino- with mino-led 
emotions of grief, of patriotism, and of gratitude — above all, of 
gi-atitude to that country, by a majority of whose sufiragesy 
bestowed at tlie pi-eceding November, he then stood the most 
distinguished, the most elevated, the most honored of all livino- 
whigs of the United Slates. 

" It was under tliese circumstances, and in this probable slate 
of mind, that President Tyler, on the tenth day of the same 
month of April, volunlarily promulgated an address to the people 
of the United Stales. That address was in the nature of a cor- 
onation oath, which the chief of the state in other countries, and 
under otlie;' t'oinis, 'akes upon asccti'liiig the throne. It rofen-eJ 



100 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

to the solemn obligations, and the profound sense of duty, under 
which the new President entered upon the high trust which had 
devolved upon him, by the joint acts of the people and of Provi- 
dence, and it stated the principles, and delineated the policy, by 
which he would be governed in his exalted station. It was 
emphatically a whig address, from the beginning to end — every 
inch of it was whig, and was patriotic. 

"In that address the President, in respect to the subject 
matter embraced in the present bill, held the following conclusive 
and emphatic language : 

"'I shall promiMy give my sanction to any constitutional 
measure, which, originating in Congress, shall have for its object 
the restoration of a sound circulating medium, so essentially 
necessary to give confidence in all the transactions of life, to 
secuie to industry its just and adequate rewards, and to re-estab- 
lish the public prosperity . In deciding upon the adaptation of 
any such measure lo the end proposed, as well as its conformity 
to the Constitution, I shall resort to \\\q fathers of the great repub- 
lican school for advice and instruction, to be drawn from their 
sage views of our system of government, and the light of their 
ever glorious example.^ 

"To this clause in the address of the President, I believe but 
one interpretation was given throughout this whole country, by 
friend and foe, by whig and democrat, and by the presses of 
both parties. It v»as, by every man with whom I conversed on 
the subject at the time of its appearance, or of whom I have 
since inquired, construed to mean that the President intended to 
occupy the Madison ground, and to regard the question of the 
power to establish a national Bank as immovably settled. And 
I think I may confidently appeal to the Senate and to the coun- 
try, to sustain the fact, that this was the cotemporaneous and 
unanimous judgment of the public. Reverting back to the period 
of ihe promulgation of the address, could any other construction 
have been given to its language ? What is it ? 'I shall promptly 
give my sanction to any constitutional measure, which, originat- 
ing in Congress,^ shall have certain defined objects in view. He 
conceck'S llie viial inipnrijiuce of a t^ituiul ciit'iilaUng medium to 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 101 

industry, and (o the public prosperity. He concedes that its 
origin must be in Congress. And to prevent any inference 
from the qualification, which he prefixes to the measure, being 
interpreted to mean that a United States bank was unconstitu- 
tional he declares, that in deciding on the adaptation of the 
measure to the end proposed, and its conformity to the Constitu- 
tion, he will resort to the fathers of the great republican school. 
And who were they ? If the father of his country is to be ex- 
cluded, are Madison (the father of the Constitution), Jefferson, 
Monroe, Gerry, Gallatin, and the long list of republicans who 
acted with them, not to be regarded as among those fathers ? 
But President Tyler declares, not only that he shoukl appeal to 
them for advice and instruction, but to the light of their ever 
glorious EXAMPLE. What example ? What other meaning could 
have been possibly applied to the phrase, than that he intended 
to refer to what had been done during the administration of Jef- 
ferson, Madison, and Monroe? 

" Entertaining this opinion of the address, I came to Washing- 
ton at the commencement of the session, with the most confident 
and buoyant hopes that the whigs would be able to carry all 
their prominent measures, and especially a bank of the United 
States, by far that one of the greatest immediate importance. 1 
anticipated nothing but cordial co-operation betAveen the two 
departments of government ; and I reflected with pleasure, that 
I should find, at the head of the Executive branch, a personal 
and political friend, whom I had long and intimately known, and 
highly esteemed. It will not be my fault, if our amicable rela- 
tions should unhappily cease, in consequence of any difference 
of opinion between us on this occasion. The president has been 
always perfectly familiar with my opinion on this bank question. 

"Upon the opening of the session, but especially on the re- 
ceipt of a plan of a national Bank, as proposed by the Secretary 
of the Treasury, fears were excited that the President had been 
misunderstood in his address, and that he had not waived but 
adhered to his constitutional scruples. Under these circum- 
stances, it was hoped, that, by the indulgence of a mutual spirit 
of compromise and concession, a Bank, competent to fulfill the 



102 THE LIFE OF HENKY CLAY. 

expectations and satisfy the wants of the people, miglit be 
established. 

" Under the influence of that spirit, the Senate and the House 
agreed, first, as to the name of the proposed Bank. I confess, 
sir, tliat there was sometliing exceedingly outre and revolting to 
my ears, in the term * Fiscal Bank ;' but I thought, ' what is 
there in a name ? A rose by any other name would smell as 
sweet.' Looking, therefore, rather to the utility of the substan- 
tial faculties, than to the name of the contemplated institution, 
we consented to that which was proposed. 

" Secondly, as to the place of location of the Bank. Although 
Washington had passed through my mind as among the cities in 
which it might be expedient to place the Bank, it was believed 
to be the least elio-ible of some four or five otlier cities. Never- 
theless, we consented to fix it here. 

"And, lastly, in respect to the branching power, there was 
not, probably, a solitary vote given in eithei- House of Congress 
for the bill, that did not greatly prefer the unqualified branching 
power, as asserted in the charters of the two former Banks of the 
United States, to the sixteenth fundamental condition, as finally 
incorporated in this bill. It is perfectly manifest, therefore, (liat 
it was not in conformity with the opinion and wish of majorities 
in Congress, but in a friendly spirit of concession toward the 
President and his particular friends, that the clause asstimed 
that form. So reptignant was it to some of the best friends of a 
national Bank in the other House, that they finally voted against 
the bill, because it contained that compromise of the branching 
power. 

"It is true, that in presenting the compromise to the Senate, I 
stated, as was the fact, that I did not know Avhether it would be 
acceptable to the President or not ; that, according to my opin- 
ion, each department of the Government should act upon its own 
responsibility, independently of the other ; and that I presented 
the modification of the branching power because it was necessary 
to insure the passage of the bill in the Senate, having ascertained 
that the vote would stand twenty-six against it to twenty-five, if 
the form of that power which had been re}iorted by the committee 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 103 

were persisted in. But I nev^ertheless did entertain the most 
conlident hopes and expectations, that the bill would receive the 
sanction of the President ; and this motive, althougli not the im- 
mediate one, had great weight in the introduction and adoption 
of the compromise clause. I knew that our friends who would 
not vote for the bill as reported, were actuated, as they avowed, 
by considerations of union and harmony, growing out of sup- 
posed views of the President, and I presumed that he would not 
fell to feel and appreciate their sacrifices. But I deeply regret 
that we were mistaken. Notwithstanding all our concessions, 
made in a genuine and sincere spirit of conciliation, the sanction 
of the President could not be obtained, and the bill has been 
returned by hira with his objections." 

After giving the objections of the President a thorough scru- 
tiny, he added, in conclusion: 

"On a former occasion I stated, that in the event of an un- 
fortunate difference of opinion between the Legislative and Ex- 
ecutive deparlments, the point of difierence might be developed, 
and it would be then seen whether, they could be brought to 
coincide in any measure corresponding with the public hopes 
and expectations. I regret that the President has not, in this 
message, favored us with a more clear and explicit exhibition of 
his views. It is sufficiently manifest that he is decidedly op- 
posed to the establishment of a new Baidt of the United States 
formed after the two old models. I tliink it is fairly to be 
inferred, that the plan of the Secretary of the Treasury could not 
have received his sanction. He is opposed to the passage of the 
bill which he has returned ; but whether he would give his ap- 
probation to any bank, and, if any, what sort of a bank, is not 
absolutely clear. I think it may be collected from the message, 
with the aid or information derived through other sources, that 
the President would concur in the establishment of a Bank whose 
operations should be limited to dealing in bills of exchange, to 
deposits, and to the supply of a circulation, excluding the power 
of discounting promissory notes. And I understand that some 
of our friends are now considering the practicability of arranging 



104 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY, 

and passing a bill in conformity with the views of President 
Tyler. While I regret that I can take no active part in such 
an experiment, and must reserve to myself the right of determin- 
inff. whether I can or can not vote for such a bill after I see it 
in its matured form, I assure my friends that they shall find no 
obstacle or impediment in me. On the contrary, I say to them, 
go on : God speed you in any measure which will serve the 
country, and preserve or restore harmony and concert between 
the departments of government. An Executive veto of a Bank 
of the United States, after the sad experience of late years, is an 
event which was not anticipated by the political friends of the 
President ; certainly not by me. But it has come upon us with 
tremendous weight, and amidst the greatest excitement within 
and without the metropolis. The question now is, what shall be 
done ? What, under this most embarrassing and unexpected 
state of things, will our constituents expect of us ? What is re- 
quired by the duty and the dignity of Congress ? I repeat, that 
if, after a careful examination of the Executive message, a Bank 
can be devised which will aflford any remedy to existing evils, 
and secure the President's approbation, let the project of such a 
Bank be presented. It shall encounter no opposition, if it should 
receive no support, from me. 

" But what further shall we do ? Never, since I have enjoyed 
the honor of participating in the public councils of the nation, a 
period now of nearly thirty-five years, have I met Congress 
under more happy or more favorable auspices. Never have 1 
seen a House of Representatives animated by more patriotic dis- 
positions ; more united, more determined, more business-like. 
Not even that House which declared war in 1812, nor that 
which, in 1815-16, laid broad and deep foundations of national 
prosperity, in adequate provisions for a sound currency, by the 
establishment of a Bank of the United States, for the payment 
of the national debt, and for the protection of American industry. 
This House has solved the problem of the competency of a large 
deliberative body to transact the public business. If happily 
there had existed a concurrence of opinion and cordial co-opera- 
tion between the different departments of the Government, and 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 105 

all the members of the party, we should have carried every 
measure contemplated at the extra session, which the people had 
a rii'-ht to expect from our pledges, and should have been, by 
this time, at our respective homes. We are disappointed in one, 
and an important one, of that series of measures ; but shall we 
therefore despair ? Shall we abandon ourselves to unworthy 
feelinffs and sentiments ? Shall we allow ourselves to be trans- 
ported by rash and intemperate passions and counsels ? Shall 
we adjourn, and go home in disgust ? No ! No ! No ! A 
higher, nobler, and more patriotic career lies before us. Let us 
here, at the east end of Pennsylvania avenue, do our duty, our 
whole duty, and nothing short of our duty, toward our common 
country. We have repealed the Sub-treasury. We have passed 
a bankrupt law — a beneficent measure of substantial and exten- 
sive relief Let us now pass the bill for the distribution of the 
proceeds of the public lands, the revenue bill, and the bill for 
the benefit of the oppressed people of this District. Let us do 
all, let us do every thing we can for the public good. If we are 
finally disappointed in our hopes of giving to the country a 
Bank, which will once more supply it with a sound currency, 
still let us go home and tell our constituents, that we did all that 
we could under actual circumstances ; and that, if we did not 
carry every measure for their relief, it was only because to do so 
was impossible. If nothing can be done at this extra session, to 
put upon a more stable and satisfactory basis the currency and 
exchanges of the country, let us hope that hereafter some way 
will be found to accomplish that most; desirable object, either by 
an amendment of the Constitution, limiting and qualifying the 
enormous Executive power, and especially the veto, or by in- 
creased majorities in the two Houses of Congress, competent to 
the passage of wise and salutary laws, the President's objections 
notwithstandinsf. 

" This seems to me to be the course now incumbent upon us 
to pursue ; and by conforming to it, whatever may be the result 
of laudable endeavors, noAv in progress or in contemplation in 
relation to a new attempt to establish a Bank, we shall go home 
bearing no self-reproaches for neglected or abandoned duty." 



106 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

The course of Mr. Tyler, with respect to the Bank bill, was 
the harbinger of his svibsequent conduct toward the party which 
elevated him to power. All the members of his cabinet, with one 
exception, resigned their places in disgust. Mr. Webster re- 
tained his position, as Secretary, because of an important nego- 
tiation in which he was engaged, with the British Govei'nment. 
Mr. Clayton indignantly declared, that " Corruption and Tyler, 
and Tyler and corruption, would stick together, as long as Cati- 
line and treason." 

Mr. Clay had seen the veto power abused by Jackson, and 
had then remonstrated. But now, when Tyler, desiring to com- 
pensate for his personal insignificance, by making his power as 
the Executive felt, returned to Congress bills inscribed with his 
negative, and dismissed Avhom he chose from office, filling their 
places with creatures of his own, Mr. Clay again came forward, 
se9king to procure such amendments to the Constitution, as 
would duly restrict this dangerous supremacy of the Chief 
Mao-istrate. 

He wished to limit the veto power ; to obtain the passage of a 
law rendering "a person ineligible to the office of President of 
the United States after a service of one term ;" to prevent the 
appointment by the Executive of any Senator or Representative, 
to any office under the United States, during the term for which 
he was elected ; and to procure a law that the Secretary of the 
Treasury should be chosen by Congress. 

Soon after, Mr. Clay resigned his seat in the Senate. The 
high hopes with which he had entered upon his duties in the 
session of May, 1841, had been doomed to bitter disappointment. 
Wearied with years of fruitless conflict, he longed for the retire- 
ment and peace of private life. But, before he left his post, he 
made a closing effort in behalf of his favorite policy. The Com- 
promise Tariff of 1833 expired by limitation, in 1842. True to 
his eai-ly predilections, he would not leave the councils of his 
country, until he had lifted up his eloquent voice once more, in 
favor of protection. Having fulfilled that duty, he felt free to 
leave the troubled arena of politics for the welcomes of friends 
and the peaceful shades of Ashland. 



THE LIFE OF IIENKY CLAY. 107 

March 31st, 1842, he tendered his resignation to the Senate. 
Rising in his place, he said, with much emotion: — 

" Allow me to announce, formally and officially, my retii'e- 
ment fi'om the Senate of the United States, and to present the 
last motion I shall ever make in this body. But, before I make 
that motion, I trust I shall be pardoned if I avail myself, with 
the permission and indulgence of the Senate, of this last occa- 
sion of addressing to it a few more observations. 

" I entered the Senate of the United States in December, 1806. 
I regarded that body then, and still consider it, as one which 
may compare, without disadvantage, with any legislative assem- 
bly, either in ancient or modern times, Avhether I look to its 
dignity, the extent and importance of its powers, the ability by 
which its individual members have been distinguished, or its 
oro-anic constitution. If compared in any of these respects with 
the senates either of France or of England, that of the United 
States will sustain no derogation. With respect to the mode of 
constitutiim- those bodies, I may observe, that, in the House of 
Peers in England, with the exceptions of Ireland, and of Scot- 
land — and in that of France Avith no exception whatever — tho 
members hold their places in their individual rights under no 
delegated authority, not even from the order to which they 
belong, but derive them from the grant of the Crown, trans- 
mitted by descent, or created in new patents of nobility ; while 
here we have the proud and more noble title of representatives of 
sovereign States, of distinct and independent commonwealths. 

" If we look again at the powers exercised by the senates of 
France and England, and by the Senate of the United States, we 
shall find that the aggregate of power is much greater here. In 
all, the respective bodies possess the legislative power. In the 
foreign senates, as in this, the judicial power is vested, although 
there it exists in a larger degree than here. But, on the other 
hand, that vast, undefined, and undefinable power involved in 
the right to co-operate with the Executive in the formation and 
ratification of treaties, is enjoyed in all its magnitude and conse- 
quence by this body, while it is possessed by neither of theirs : 
beside which, there is another function of very great practical 



108 THE LIFE OF HENRY GI.AY. 

importance — that of sharing with the Executive branch in dis- 
tributing the immense patronage of this Government. In both 
these latter respects we stand on grounds different from the 
House of Peers either of England or France. And then, as to 
the dignity and decorum of its proceedings, and ordinarily, as 
to the ability of its members, I may, with great truth, declare 
that, during the whole period of my knowledge of this Senate, 
it can, without arrogance or presumption, stand an advantageous 
comparison with any deliberative body that ever existed in 
ancient or modern times. 

" Full of attraction, however, as a seat in the Senate is, suffi- 
cient as it is to satisfy the aspirations of the most ambitious 
heart, I have long determined to relinquish it, and to seek that 
repose which can be enjoyed only in the shades of private life, 
in the circle of one's own family, and in the tranquil enjoyments 
included in one enchanting word — Home. 

" It was my purpose to terminate my connection with this body 
in November, 1840, after the memorable and glorious political 
struggle which distinguished that year : but I learned, soon 
after, what indeed I had for some time anticipated from the 
result of my own reflections, that an extra session of Congress 
would be called ; and I felt desirous to co-opei-ate with my 
political and personal friends in restoring, if it could be effected, 
the prosperity of the country, by the best measures which their 
united counsels might be able to devise ; and I therefore attended 
the exti'a session. It was called, as all know, by the lamented 
Harrison ; but his death, and the consequent accession of his 
successor, produced an entirely new aspect of public affairs. 

" Had he lived, I have not one particle of doubt that every im- 
portant measure to Avhich the country had looked with so confi- 
dent an expectation would have been consummated, by the co- 
operation of the Executive with the legislative branch of the 
Government. And here allow me to say, only, in regard to that 
so much repi'oached extia session of Congress, that I believe if 
any of those, Avho, ihrough the influence of party spirit, or the 
bias of political prejudice, have loudly censured the measures 
then adopted, Avould look at them in a spirit of candor and of 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAt. 109 

justice, their conclusion, and that of the country generally, 
would be, that if there exist any just ground of complaint, it is 
to be found not in what was done, but in what was not done, 
but left unfinished. 

"Had President Harrison lived, and the measures devised at 
that session been fully carried out, it was my intention then to 
have resigned my seat. But the hope (I feared it might prove 
vain) that, at the regular session, the measures which we had 
left undone might even then be perfected, or the same object 
attained in an equivalent form, induced me to postpone the 
determination ; and events which arose after the extra session, 
resultino- from the failure of those measures which had been pro- 
posed at that session, and which seemed for the moment to sub- 
ject our political friends to the semblance of defeat, confirmed 
me in the resolution to attend the present session also, and, 
whether in prosperity or adversity, to share the fortune of my 
friends. But I resolved, at the same time, to retire as soon as I 
could do so with propriety and decency. 

" From 1806, the period of my entrance upon this noble thea- 
ter, with short intervals, to the present time, I have been engaged 
in the public councils, at home or abroad. Of the services ren- 
dered during that long and arduous period of my life it does not 
become me to speak ; history, if she deign to notice me, and 
posterity, if the recollection of my humble actions shall be trans- 
mitted to posterity, are the best, the truest, and the most impar- 
tial judges. When death has closed the scene, their sentence 
will be pronounced, and- to that I commit myself. My public 
conduct is a fair subject for the criticism and judgment of my 
fellow-men ; but the motives by which I have been pi'ompted 
are known only to the great searcher of the human heart and to 
myself; and I trust I may be pardoned for repeating a declara- 
tion made some thirteen years ago, that, whatever errors, and 
doubtless there have been many, may be discovered in a review 
of my public service, I can with unshaken confidence appeal to 
tlial divine arbiter for the truth of the declaration, tliat I have 
been influenced by no impure purpose, no personal motive ; have 
soui'Iil no personal a "■"•i;ia lizeineui ; bui il'ai, in ;il! my nulilio 



110 TUB LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

acts, I have had a single eye directed, and a warm and devoted 
heart dedicated, to what, in my best judgment, I believed the 
true interests, the honor, the union, and the happiness of my 
country required. 

"During that long period, however, I have not escaped the 
fate of other public men, nor failed to incur censure and detrac- 
tion of the bitterest, most unrelenting, and most malignant char- 
acter ; and though not always insensible to the pain it was meant 
to inflict, I have borne it, in general, with composure, and without 
disturbance here [pointing- to his breast], waiting as I have 
done, in perfect and undoubting confidence, for the ultimate 
triumph of justice and of truth, and in the entire persuasion that 
time Avould settle all things as they should be, and that what- 
ever wrong or injustice I might experience at the hands of man. 
He to whom all hearts are open and fully knoAvn, would, by the 
inscrutable dispensations of his providence, rectify all error, 
redress all wrong, and cause ample justice to be done. 

"But I have not meanwhile been unsustained. Everywhere 
throughout the extent of this great continent I have had coidial, 
warm-hearted, faithful, and devoted friends, Avho have known 
me, loved me, and appreciated my motives. To them, if lan- 
guage were capable of fully expres.sing my acknowledgments, I 
would now offer all the return I have the power to make for their 
genuine, disinterested, and persevering fidelity and devoted 
attachment, the feelings and sentiments of a heart overflowing 
with never-ceasing gratitude. If, however, I fail in suitable 
language to express my gratitude to them for all the kindness 
they have shown me, what shall I say, what can I say at all 
commensurate with those feelings of gialitude with which I 
have been inspired by the State whose humble representative 
and servant I have been in this chamber?" [Here Mr. Clay's 
feelings overpowered bim, and he proceeded with deep sensi- 
bility and difficult utterance.] 

"I emigrated from Virginia to the State of Kentucky now 
nearly forty-five years ago ; I Avent as an orphan boy who had 
not yet attained the age of majority; who had never recognized 
a father's smile;, nor fell his warm cai'esses ; poor, penniless. 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. Ill 

witlioiit the favor of the great, with an imperfect and neglected 
education, hardly sufficient for the ordinary business and com- 
mon pursuits of life ; but scarce had I set my foot upon her 
generous soil when I was embraced with parental fondness, 
caressed as though I had been a favorite child, and patronized 
with liberal and unbounded munificence. From that period the 
highest honors of the State have been freely bestowed upon me ; 
and Avhen, in the darkest hour of calumny and detraction, I 
seemed to be assailed by all the rest of the Avorld, she interposed 
her broad and impenetrable shield, repelled the poisoned shafts 
that were aimed for my destruction, and vindicated my good 
name from every malignant and unfounded aspersion. I retui'n 
with indescribable pleasure to linger a wliile longer, and mingle 
with the warm-hearted and whole-souled people of that State; 
and, when the last scene shall forever close upon me, I hope 
that my earthly remains will be laid under her green sod with 
those of her gallant and patriotic sons. 

"But the ingenuity of my assailants is never exhausled. It 
seems I have subjected myself to a new epithet; which I do not 
know wliether to take in honor or derogation : I am lield up to 
the country as a ' dictator.' A dictator ! The idea of a dictator- 
ship is drawn from Roman institutions ; and at the time the office 
was created, tlie person who wielded the ti'emendous weio-ht of '^ 
authority it conferred, concentrated in liis own person an abso- 
lute power over the lives and properly of his fellow-citizens ; he 
could levy armies ; he could build and man n'avies ; lie could 
i-aise any amount of revenue he might choose to demand ; and 
life and death rested on his fiat. If I were a dictator, as I am 
said to be, where is the power with which I am clollied ? Have 
I any army ? any navy ? any revenue ? any patronage ? in a 
word, any power whatever? If I liad been a dictator, I think 
that even those who have the most freely applied to me tjie ap- 
pellation must be compelled to make two admissions; first, that 
my dictatorship has been distinguished by no cruel execution.--, 
stained by no blood, sullied by no act of dishonor; and 1 think 
they must also own ( though I do not e.\actly know what date 
my commis.siMii of iliciutor bi-avs ; I .suppose, liowivcr, it must 



112 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

have commenced with the extra session); that if I did usurp the 
power of a dictator, I at least voluntarily surrendered it within a 
shorter period than was allotted for the duration of the dictator- 
ship of the Roman commonwealth. 

"If to have sought at the extra session and at the present, by 
the co-opeiation of my friends, to carry out the great measures 
intended by the popular majority of 1 840, and to have earnestly 
wished that they should all have been adopted and executed ; 
if to have ardently desired to see a disordered currency regulated 
and restored, and irregular exchanges equalized and adjusted ; 
if to have labored to replenish the empty coffers of the treasury 
by suitable duties ; if to have endeavored to extend relief to the 
unfortunate bankrupts of the country, who had been ruined in a 
great measure by the erroneous policy, as we believed, of this 
Government ; to limit, circumscribe, and reduce Executive au- 
thority ; to retrench unnecessary expenditure and abolish useless 
offices and institutions ; and the public honor to preserve untar- 
nished by supplying a revenue adequate to meet the national 
engagements and incidental pi'otection to the national industry ; 
if to have entertained an anxious solicitude to redeem every 
pledge , and execute every promise fairly made by my political 
friends, with a view to the acquisition of power fi'om the hands 
of an honest and confiding people ; if these constitute a man a 
DICTATOR, why, then, I must be content to bear, although 
I still ought only to share with my friends, the odium or the 
honor of the epithet, as it may be considered on the one hand 
or the other. 

"That my nature is warm, my temper ardent, my disposition 
especially in relation to the public service, enthusiastic, I am 
ready to own ; and those who suppose that I have been assum- 
ing the dictatorship, have only mistaken for arrogance or as- 
sumption that ardor and devotion which are natural to my con- 
stitution, and which I may have displayed with too little regard 
to cold, calculating, and cautious prudence, in sustaining and 
zealously supporting important national measures of policy which 
I have presented and espoused. 

" In the course of a long and arduous public service, especially 



THE LIFE OF HENKY CLAY. 113 

during the last eleven years in which I have held a seat in the 
Senate, from the same ardor and enthusiasm of character, I have 
no doubt, in the heat of debate, and in an honest endeavor to main- 
tain my opinions against adverse opinions, alike honestly enter- 
tained, as to the best course to be adopted for the public welfare, 
I may have often inadvertently and unintentionally, in moments 
of excited debate, made use of language that has been offensive, 
and susceptible of injurious interpretation toward my brother 
senators. If there be any here who retain wounded feelings of 
injury or dissatisfaction produced on such occasions, I beg to 
assure them that I now offer the most ample apology for any 
departure on my part from the established rules of parliamentary 
decorum and courtesy. On the other hand, I assure senators, 
one and all, Avithout exception and without reserve, that I retire 
from this chamber without carrvina; with me a single feelino- 
of resentment or dissatisfaction to the Senate or any one of its 
members. 

" I go from this plac^ under the hope that we shall, mutually, 
consign to perpetual oblivion whatever personal collisions may at 
any time unfortunately have occurred between us ; and that our 
recollections shall dwell in future only on those conflicts of mind 
with mind, those intellectual struggles, those noble exhibitions 
of the power of logic, argument, and eloquence, honorable to the 
Senate and to the nation, in which each has souo-ht and con- 
tended for what he deemed the best mode of accomplishing one 
common object, the interest and the most happiness of our 
beloved country. To these thrilling and delightful scenes it will 
be my pleasure and my pride to look back in my retirement with 
unmeasured satisfaction. 

" And now, Mr. President, allow me to make the motion 
which it was my object to submit when I rose to address you. 
I present the credentials of my friend and successor. If any 
void has been created by my withdrawal from the Senate, it will 
be amply filled by him, whose urbanity, whose gallant and gen- 
tlemanly bearing, whose steady adherence to principle, and 
whose rare and accomplished powers in debate, are known to 
the Senate and to the countiy. I move that his credentials 
10 



114 THE LIFE OF HENKY CLAY. 

be received, and that the oath of office be now administered 
to him. 

"In retiring, as I am about to do, forever, from the Senate, 
sutler me to express my heartfelt wishes that all the great and 
patriotic objects of the wise framers of our Constitution may be 
fuliilled ; that the high destiny designed for it may be fully 
answered ; and that its deliberations, now and hereafter, may 
eventuate in securing the prosperity of our beloved country, in 
maintaining its rights and honor abroad, and upholding its 
interests at home. I retire, I know, at a period of infinite 
distress and embarrassment. I wish I could take my leave 
of you under more favorable auspices ; but, without meaning, 
at this time, to say whether on any or on whom reproaches for 
the sad condition of the country should fall, I appeal to the 
Senate and to the world to bear testimony to my earnest and 
continued exertions to avert it, and to the truth that no blame 
can justly attach to me. 

"May the most precious blessings of heaven rest upon the 
whole Senate and each member of it, and may the labors of 
every one redound to the benefit of the nation and the advance- 
ment of his own fame and renown. And when you shall retire 
to the bosom of your constituents, may you receive that most 
cheering and gratifying of all human rewards — their cordial 
greeting of ' well done, good and faithful servant.' 

"And now, Mr. President, and senators, I bid you all a long, 
a lasting, and a friendly farewell." 

Mr. Crittenden was then duly qualified, and took his seat ; 
when Mr. Preston rose and said : what had just taken place was 
an epoch in their legislative history, and from the feeling which 
was evinced, he plainly saw that there was little disposition to 
attend to business. He would therefore move that the Senate 
adjourn ; which motion was unanimously agreed to. 

"The feeling manifested on this occasion," says one of Mr. 
Clay's biographers, "both on the floor and in the galleries, was 
such as is rarely witnessed in a like assembly. The opponents of 
Mr. Clay in the Senate, some of whom liad been very biiter in tlu'ir 



THE LIFE OF HENKY CLAY, 115 

hostility, seemed to be subdued and to give themselves up to the 
more generous feelings ; most of whom were seen crossing the 
floor, after the Senate had adjourned, and oSering their hands to 
Mr. Clay. All were interested in observing this act on the part 
of Mr. Calhoun, and touched in noticing that both he and Mr. 
Clay were too much affected to make any conversation, and 
forced to retire without a siup-le word." 



CHAFTEK XII. 

Mr. Clay is again candidate for tlie Presidency, and suffers renewed 
defeat — Sorrow of his friends — War with Mexico — Acquisition of 
Territory — Enibai-rassing questions — Danger to the Union — Mr. Clay 
accepts a seat in the Senate — His heroic efforts to quiet the distraction 
of his country — It is the Chieftain's last battle — Disease advances — His 
death — ^His abilities as a statesman and orator — His characteristics as a 
man. 

The Whig party submitted, as they were compelled to do, but 
submitted indignantly, to the results arising from their ill-starred 
choice. Waiting with impatience for the termination of Presi-*' 
dent Tyler's misrule, they resolved that when they entered the 
next political contest, it should be with men whose principles 
were tried and true. Every consideration directed their choice 
to the patriot of Ashland. He certainly could not prove treach- 
erous to that system and to that party of which he himself was 
the founder. Propriety long before would have given to his 
claims the preference over those of every competitor. But the 
four years of disappointment had brought an abundant harvest 
of regrets. 

When, therefore, the Whig Convention met at Baltimore, in 
1 844, it was pervaded with but one sentiment. No rival claims 
were there. The popular voice had spoken decisively, and the 
convention was its faithful echo. There was no occasion for the 
usual balloting. Amid the tumultuous cheering, opportunity 
was hardly afforded to hear a resolution which was offered. It 
declared Mr. Clay the choice of the assembly, and was adopted 
upon the instant by acclamation. Theodore Frelinghuysen, a 
man of excellent qualities and unquestioned probity, was placed 
upon the ticket with him for the Vice Presidency. With these 

( 116) 



1 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 117 

leaders, the Whigs were sanguine of success. The possibility 
of defeat was hardly dreamed of. The canvassing went on with 
an enthusiasm akin to that of 1840. 

The Democrats had nominated, in opposition, a member of 
their party hardly known beyond his own neighborhood. With 
such a candidate, it was thought that the self-styled Democracy 
would inevitably suffer an overwhelming defeat. But the result 
proved their choice to be more politic than their opponents had 
imamned. 

In April, Mr. Clat published in the National Intelligencer a 
letter called, in reference to the place from which it was dated, 
the Raleigh letter. In that letter he took decided ground against 
the proposed annexation of Texas. But the Texas scheme was 
popular. The candor of Mr. Clay operated to his detriment. 
His opponent was more discreet. Obscurity had given him the 
advantage of not appearing committed to any decisive policy. 
He was determined not to compromise this advantage by any 
indiscretions of speech. 

The election went duly on. The returns, as they came in, 
indicated a close contest. There were abundant evidences, in 
some sections, of corruption. Mr. Clay, however, seemed in 
*the ascendant. New York State, it was believed, had given him 
a majority. The Whigs assembled in the city of New York to 
celebrate their supposed victory. Cannons were fired ; universal 
rejoicing reigned, but all this festivity was doomed to a speedy 
termination. Later returns indicated that, by a defection from 
the Whig ranks. New York State was lost, and that Mr. Clay 
was defeated. 

The revulsion of feeling which attended the ascertainment of 
this fact can not be described. With many the feeling, for a 
time, was more like that from the loss of all earthly hopes, and 
the burial of all earthly friendships, than such as usually attends 
the result of a mere political contest. Letters poured in upon 
Mr. Clay, expressive of such feelings as are seldom enter- 
tained toward the unsuccessful politician. But it is not often 
that one stands in the attitude to the public, which Mr. Clay 
occupied. The politician was not so prominent in him, as the 



118 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

patriot. The people regarded him, not so much as a statesman 
and legislator, as a public benefactor and friend. 

Mr. Clay was evidently deeply disappointed, but he bore his 
disappointment nobly. The Kentucky electors, after depositing 
their vote at Frankfort, their capital, waited upon him at Ash- 
land, to tender their regrets for his defeat. He came forth to 
meet them, and in reply to their address, said, with much feel- 
in o-: "I will not affect indifference to the personal concern I 
had in the political contest just terminated; but unless I am 
greatly self-deceived, the principal attraction to me of the office 
of President of the United States, arose out of the cherised hope 
that I mio-ht be an humble instrument in the hands of Providence 
to accomplish public good. I desired to see the former purity 
of the General Government restored, and to see dangers and evils 
which I sincerely believed encompassed it, averted and remedied. 
I was anxious that the policy of the country, especially in the |l 

great department of domestic labor and industry, should be fixed 
and stable, and that all might know how to regulate and accom- 
modate their conduct. And, fully convinced of the wisdom of 
the public measures, which you have enumerated, I hoped to 
live to witness, and to contribute to, their adoption and establish- 
ment." 

Mr. Polk was inducted into office almost at the moment when, 
through the agency of President Tyler, the annexation of Texas 
to the United States was consummated. The war with Mexico, 
which Mr. Clay had predicted, soon folloAved. The feeble 
Mexicans were easily vanquished. The Americans penetrated 
to the heart of Mexico, and accomplished in effect, what, in 
terms of rhetorical bombast, they designated "reveling in the 
halls of the Montezumas." 

American valor brought the war to a speedy and successful 
conclusion, but in its results the contest was transferred from 
the plains of Mexico to the floors of Congress. The acquisi- 
tion of Territory brought with it embarrassing questions. In 
the extension of the borders of the Union, its stability was im- 
periled. The country was again brought into an emergency 
wliich demanded lh« services of the Great Pacificator. But, 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY, 119 

meanwhile, an election had taken place. Tlie friends of Mr. 
Clai' desired to present him again for the suffrages of the people. 
But expediency prevailed over merit. The Mexican war had 
given eclat to the name of Taylor, and the statesman was com- 
pelled to give place to the chieftain. 

Mr. Clay bowed his head resignedly to the fresh disappoint- 
ment. The twenty years of reverses had not soured his nature. 
Injustice, detraction and blasted hopes, had not made him a 
hater of his kind. He was still the same ardent patriot that he 
had ever been, willing to bury considerations of self in his 
higher love for his country. Clouds were seen gathering over 
the prospects of the nation. His beloved State believed that the 
presence of her own Clay was needed in the legislative councils. 
The Legislature of Kentucky offered him a seat in the Senate of 
the United Stales, and, though aged, infirm and toil-worn, ha 
patriotically accepted it. 

It was, indeed, a time when the country had need of its truest 
patriot. A complication of difficulties such as had never arisen 
in its darkest period confronted its statesmen, and alarmed its 
people. The question of Slavery, always a fearful one, pre- 
sented itself under new forms and a more than usually dangerous 
aspect. 

California, impatient of the tardiness of legislation, had 
adopted a State Constitution excluding Slavery, and demanded 
admission. Texas was involved in difficulties, relating to a 
boundary line Avith New Mexico. A debt which the new State 
had contracted, the United States were called upon to assume. 
The new Territories were waiting for the United States to define 
tlifiir position relative to Slavery. The North was demanding 
the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of 
Columbia. The South, loud in their complaints of the insecurity 
of their property, demanded a renewed affirmation of the clause 
in the Constitution returnino- fuoitives from labor. 

Mr. Clay presented resolutions of compromise, relating sever- 
ally to these formidable difficulties. His aged form appeared 
upon the Senate floor in something of its youthful erectness. 
His wasted cheek olowed aoain with ihe flush of excitement. 



120 THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

His eye flashed once more with that light, before which opposi- 
tion had often quailed. His voice assumed those seductive tones 
by Avhich anger had repeatedly been disarmed. 

" Mr. President," he said, after reading and commenting upon 
the resolutions which he had drawn up, " you have before you 
the whole series of resolutions, the whole scheme of arrange- 
ment and accommodation of these distracting questions, which 
I have to offer, after having bestowed on these subjects the most 
anxious, intensely anxious, consideration ever since I have been 
in this body. How far it may prove acceptable to both or either 
of the parties on these great questions, it is not for me to say. 
I think it ought to be acceptable to both. There is no sacrifice 
of any principle, proposed in any of them, by either party. The 
plan is founded upon mutual forbearance, originating in a spirit 
of reconciliation and concession ; not of principles, but of mat- 
.ters of feeling. At the North, sir, I know that from feeling, by 
many at least, cherished as being dictated by considerations of 
humanity and philanthropy, there exists a sentiment adverse to 
the institution of Slavery. 

" Sir, I might, I think, — although I believe this project con- 
tains about an equal amount of concession and forbearance on 
both sides, — have asked from the free States of the North a more 
liberal and extensive concession than should be asked from the 
slave States. And why, sir? With you, gentlemen Senators 
of the free States, what is it? An abstraction, a sentiment, — a 
sentiment, if you please, of humanity and philanthropy, — a 
noble sentiment, when directed rightly, with no sinister or party 
purposes ; an atrocious sentiment, — a detestable sentiment, — or 
rather the abuse of it, — when directed to the accomplishment of 
unworthy purposes. I said that I might ask from you larger 
and more expansive concessions than from the slave States. 
And why ? You are numerically more powerful than the slave 
States. Not that there is any difference, — for upon that subject 
I can not go along with the ardent expression of feeling by some 
of my friends coming from the same class of States from which 
I come, — not that tliere is any difference in valor, in prowess, in 
iii'blr ■■uid ]);iiriutic during, whenever it is required for the safety 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 121 

and salvation of the country, between the people of one class of 
States and those of the other. You are, in point of numbers, 
however, greater ; and greatness and magnanimity should ever 
be allied. 

"But there are other reasons why concession upon such a 
subject as this should be more liberal, more expansive, coming 
fr;m the free, than frcsra the slave States. It is, as I remarked, 
a sentiment, a sentiment of humanity and philanthropy on your 
side. Ay, sir, and when a sentiment of that kind is honestly 
and earnestly cherished, with a disposition to make sacrifices to 
enforce it, it is a noble and beautiful sentiment ; but, sir, when 
the sacrifice is not to be made by those who cherish that senti- 
ment and inculcate it, but by another people, in whose situation 
it is impossible, from their position, to sympathize and to share 
all and every thing that belongs to them, I must say to you. 
Senators from the free States, it is a totally difi'erent question. 
On your side it is a sentiment without sacrifice, a sentiment 
without danger, a sentiment without hazard, without peril, with- 
out loss. But how is it on the other side, to which, as I have 
said, a greater amount of concession ought to be made in any 
scheme of compromise ? 

" In the first place, sir, there is a vast and incalculable amount 
of property to be sacrificed, and to be sacrificed, not by your 
sharing in the common burdens, but exclusive of you. And 
this is not all. The social intercourse, habit, safety, property, 
life, everything is at hazard, in a greater or less degree, in the 
slave States. 

" Sir, look at the storm which is now raging before you, beat- 
ing in all its rage pitilessly on your family. They are in the 
South. But where are your families, where are your people, 
Senators from the free States ? They are safely housed, enjoy- 
ing all ihe blessings of domestic comfort, peace and quiet, in the 
bosomis of their own families. 

" Behold, Mr. President, that dwelling-house now wrapped in 
flames. Listen, sir, to the rafters and beams which fall in suc- 
cession, amid the crash ; and the flames ascending higher and 
higher as they tumble down. Behold those women and children 
U 



122 TIIK LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

who are flying from the calamjtous scene, and with their shrieks 
and lamentatfons imploring the aid of high Heaven. Whose 
house is that? Whose wives and children are they ? Yours in 
the free Stales ? No. You are looldng on in safety and security, 
while the conflagration which I have described is raging in the 
slave States, and produced, not intentionally, by you, but pro- 
duced from the inevitable tendency of the measures which you 
iare adopted, and which others have carried far beyond what 

you have wished. 

"In the one scale, then, we behold sentiment, sentiment, 
sentiment alone; in the other, properly, tlie social fabric, life, 
and all that makes life desirable and happy." 

To those wlio spurned the idea of compromise, Mr. Clay 
addressed himself in the followiHg animated terms: "There 
are persons who are very wise in their own esteem, and who will 
reject all compromises ; but that is no reason why a compromise 
should not be attempted. I go for honorable compromise, when 
occasions call for it. Life itself is but a compromise, until the 
Great Destroyer finally triumphs. All legislation, all govern- 
ment, all society is formed upon the principle of mutual conces- 
sion, politeness, comity, courtesy; upon these every thing is 
based. I bow to you to-day, because you bow to me. You are 
respectful to me, because I am respectful to you. Compromise 
is peculiarly appropriate between the members of a republic as 
of a common family. Compromises have this recommendation, 
that if you concede any tiling, you have something conceded to 
you in return. Treaties are compromises made with foreign 
powers, which is not a case like this. Here, if you concede 
any thing, it is to your own brethren, — to your own family. Let 
him who elevates himself above humanity, above its weaknesses, 
its infirmities, its wants, its necessities, say, if he pleases, I 
never will compromise ; but let no one who is not above the 
frailties of our common nature, disdain compromises." 

The debate was continued through many months. The excite- 
rnenl, meanwhile, continued to increase, both in Congress and 
among the people. The terms of pacification, proposed by Mr. 
Clay, met witli opposiiiun from every quarter. Yet even from 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 123 

such discouragement he borrowed some gleams of comfort. 
"When I brought forward these resolutions," he exclaimed, "I 
intended, so help me God, to propose a plan of doing equal and 
impartial justice to the South and to the North, so far as I could 
comprehend it, and I think it does yet. But how has this effort 
been received by the ultraists ? Why, sir, at the North they 
cry out, — 'It is all concession to the South.' And, sir, what is 
the language of the South ? They say, — ' It is all concession to 
the North ;' and I assure you, Mr. President, it has reconciled 
me very much to my poor efforts, to find that the ultraists on the 
one hand and on the other, equally traduce the scheme I propose 
as conceding every thing to their opponents." 

On the twenty-eighth of February, new resolutions of com- 
promise wei'e introduced by Mr. Bell of Tennessee. Upor 
motion of Mr. Foote of Mississippi, a committee of thirteen was 
appointed "to take Mr. Clay's and Mr. Bell's resolutions as a 
basis of compromise, and to report a bill or bills thereon." Of 
this committee Mr. Clay was chairman. On the eighth of May, 
they submitted their report. " They brought in three separate 
bills, covering most of the ground occupied by Mr. Clay's and 
Mr. Bell's resolutions; one for the admission of California, 
organizing the Territorial Governments, and determining the 
boundaries of Texas." " The second bill proposed enactments 
for the recovery of fugitive slaves ; and the third was framed to 
put an end to the slave trade in the District of Columbia." 

The bills, however, met with persistent opposition in Congress. 
They were also understood not to possess the favor of the Execu- 
tive. But, during the continuance of the discussion. General 
Taylor died. His successor, Mr. Fillmore, looked upon the 
measures designed to quiet the distraction of the Union with a 
more favoring eye. 

Mr. Clay, disregarding the Aveakness of age and the pains of 
incipient disease, batiled on. His biographer, Mr. Colton, 
asserts, in his "Last Seven Years of Henry Clay," that "from 
the time he brought foi'ward his resolution, the twenty-ninth of 
January, to the tliii-iy-iirst of July, when ihe bill passed with 
notliiiiL' in ii bui ilic Tfriiioiy uf U'a!i. Mr, C'lav lial bren vn 



o 



J 24 THE LIFE OF IIENKY CLAY. 

his feet, in the debate, seventy times,— not always to say much, 
but frequently called out in some of his most forcible speeches. 
Every time that the subject of the bill was the order of the day, 
he was at his post, watching with intensity the action of the 
Hiind of the Senate, and embracing every opportunity to put 
forward the measure. It has been seen," he continues, "what 
opposition he had to encounter, springing up in new forms, and 
at every stage. But the movement, Avhieh his own hand com- 
meLced, never flagged, and the final vote, on the thirty-first of 
July, which had stiicken every thing from the bill but a Terri- 
torial Government for Utah, and which seemed to be a defeat, 
was, nevertheless, a victory. For the Senate did not come to 
this conclusion, without having made up their minds to carry 
out in separate bills every thing proposed by the committee 
of thirteen, and this was perfectly understood. There was a 
nominal defeat and yet a glorious triumph. The irresistible 
influence of Mr. Clay, so long and so well sustained, had 
successfully combated faction in all its forms, and converted 
opposition into a reluctant auxiliary." 

But the great chieftain had fought his last battle. His inces- 
sant exertions wore upon a physical frame yielding to age. He 
had passed the threescore years and ten assigned to human life. 
He had stood valiantly at his post through half a century. He 
had been permitted to see the astonishing development of his 
beloved country. He had known her in infancy. It was also 
his privilege to behold her rejoicing in the strength and beauty 
of maturer life. But it had been granted him not only to see 
his country's greatness, but more perhaps than any other to 
advance it. Boasting of the exploits and fame of his country, 
he might also proudly add, "quorum magna pars fui." 

The time drew near for him to pass away fi'om the scene of 
his labors. Lingering yet a liitle while about the Senate cham- 
ber, visiting Newport to invigorate his jaded system, voyaging 
to Cuba and New Orleans, to relieve his distressing cough, 
reposing awhile in the domestic quiet of Ashland, a few une- 
vcnifiil months passed away. Again he returned to Washington, 
and (his liiui' lo (i'v. lie was able to appear but once in his place 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 125 

in the Senate. Through the winter he continued feeble. As 
spring advanced he sank rapidly. Yet even in his sick chamber 
he found occasion to show his patriotism. The country was 
running wild with excitement in behalf of Hungary. Kossuth, 
by his "wonderful and fascinating eloquence," seemed about io 
unsettle the policy recommended by Washington. The voice 
which had been lifted up so eloquently in behalf of South 
American independence and the struggling Greeks, was now 
heard in friendly remonstrance. The dying statesman admitted 
the enthusiastic Hungarian to an interview. He addressed him 
with his usual courtesj-, and even in terms of the highest com- 
pliment, but protested against the policy which he had been 
recommending to our people, and by a short and convinciuo' 
argument, demonstrated to him its impracticability. 

This was Mr. Clay's last service to his country. It was 
generally known that he was laboring under a fatal disease. The 
nation was prepared gi-adually for its loss. Intelligence from 
Washington was daily looked for with melancholy interest. The 
calamity at last came. On the twenty-ninth of June, 1852, it 
was announced in the Senate chamber, that Henry Clay was 
no more. 



We have now gone through with the principal events in the 
political history of Mr. Clay, omitting the mention of those only 
which were either of temporary importance, or which would 
have interrupted the flow of the narrative at some interesting 
point. Among the last Ave may specify his glowing speeches 
upon the Greek revolution, and his bill providing for the distri- 
bution among the several States of the proceeds arising from the 
sale of public lands. It remains only to indicate briefly his 
prominent characteristics as a statesman, as an orator, and as a 
man. 

In reo-ard to his abilities in the first relation, it mav be thouofht 
bv some unnecessarv to sav much, because time is a better 
commentator upon the wisdom o'^ political measures than any 



126 THE LIFE OF IIENKY CLAY. 

historian. Since, liowever, the excellence of this world is 
seldom absolute, we trust that Ave may be indulged in determin- 
ing his relative position. 

In enumeratino- our statesmen, were we, like the sacred 
chronicler, to class by themselves thirty of the most eminent, 
we might, after recounting their exploits and specifying the chief 
amono- them, significantly add, as does the sacred writer : Yet 
these attained not unto the first three. Among all our public 
men daring the last half century, Clay, Calhoun and Webster, 
confessedly occupied a position by themselves. 

Viewed as statesmen it may be easy, standing where we do, 
to point out their errors. Small genius is required for that. It 
:s another question whether any others in the same circumstances 
would have done as well. They failed in some of their plans, 
unquestionably, and were in error in respect to others, but 
what statesman was ever infallible ? Estimating them by their 
capabilities and by their molding influence upon the country, 
which we conceive to be the correct method, we must place 
them very high in the scale of statesmen. If asked to decide 
which possessed in the highest degree the qualities of a leader 
and the ability to direct in legislation, we should promptly 
give the preference to Mr. Clay. And yet his power as a 
statesman is to be measured rather hj what he was capable of 
doing, than by what he actually accomplished. His efforts, 
during nearly the whole of the last half of his career, were in 
the face of a powerful and triumphant opposition. 

Some of his favorite plans were possibly pushed too far. Yet 
upon the question of a National Bank, if he erred, he erred with 
the best and wisest of the country, with Madison and Calhoun, 
and the majority of the leading minds. 

As a party leader, his abilities were of the highest order. We 
know that he was sometimes charged with imperiousness and an 
obfitinacy in the pursuit of his own plans, but in this fact, so 
far from seeing in it a fault, we recognize the veiy foundation 
of his excellence. Resoluteness and inflexibility are generally 
looked upon as imperious, and yet they are the first and 
last essentials to any success in politics. There must be no 



THK LIFE OF IIEKKY CLAY. 127 

feebleness, no va( illation in dealing with masses of men, espe- 
cially with wily political opponents. 

The merit of Mr. Clay's promptness was particularly evident 
in the war of 1812, as seen in contrast with the wavering inde- 
cision of those who desired war, but dared not venture upon it. 
This quality, indeed, caused him to be looked to in every emer- 
gency as the champion of his party. 

But granting that there was something of imperiousness in his 
manner, it Avas combined with a gallant and chivalrous bearing, 
which made men delight to acknowledge him leader, and to be 
proud of his championship. There seems to be a species of 
fascination about those who move men powerfully. Napoleon 
had it. Henry Clay was endowed with it. No man in this 
country has ever possessed the quality in so eminent a degree. 

If we come to the question of patriotism, no one ever doubted 
him there. In some instances, and in respect to some measures, 
he may be thought to have been led astray by it ; but if so, it 
was a noble error, — a failinof which leaned to virtue's sid^e. 

It is by the conflict of qualities and of men, that effects are 
produced in this world. The earth is kept in its orbit by the 
force of opposite attractions. It describes a course through 
the heavens which is a compromise between the centripetal and 
projectile forces. So is it often with respect to the statesmanship 
of men. No one man, be he ever so great, carries perfectly his 
point ; he is balanced by others, who vary as widely as himself 
from the mark, but by the counter influences of the two, the de- 
sirable result is insured. Every country where exists any thing 
whicl aiay be dignified by the name of statesmanship, possesses 
two parties, a conservative and a radical, and between the two, 
and only by the conflict of the two, is the golden mean attained. 

As a statesman, we then rank Mr. Clay high among the fore- 
most, notwithstanding political opponents have said that all 
which he, by slow degrees and infinite toil constructed, has been 
overthrown, before he is hardly cold in his grave. 

As an orator, Henry Clay, we are pei'suaded, occupies the 
first rank. Oratory with him was that spontaneous, wonderful 
gift which it was with Lord Chatham and Patrick Henry. In 



128 THE LIFE OF HENEY CLAY. 

those qualities which move men, he surpassed, immeasurably, 
his two great rivals, Webster and Calhoun. He never, perhaps, 
in any parliamentary effort, came up to the mark of Webster's 
reply to Hayne, but on all ordinary occasions, there could be no 
comparison. While Webster was almost uniformly dull, Clay 
was always animated and interesting. His sensibilities were 
keen and powerful, easily moved, and impetuous as an ocean 
Btorm. 

Webster, on the other hand, was, on ordinary occasions, cold 
and phlegmatic. And yet Clay, to produce an effect, never de- 
scended to vulu-arity. He was always above demagogism and 
the low tricks of the politician. He despised such methods to 
obtain success, although one of the most ambitious of men. He 
was a proud-spirited, high-toned gentleman, and his oratory 
very seldom revealed him in any other light. He was one of the 
few men who could sincerely say, "I would rather be right than 
be President." 

To convey a clear idea of his eloquence is impossible. Like 
that of Chatham and Patrick Henry, it must live only in tradi- 
tion. In his published speeches, the reader searches in vain for 
the spell which bound his hearers. Like that of every great 
natural orator, it existed in his gestures, his matchless voice, his 
dilating form, his attitudes, and the glances of his enkindled 
eye. These are things which are beyond the power of the re- 
poi'ter ; and yet these are the things in which reposed the 
hidings of his power. His style as a writer, is, however, very 
creditable. It is always clear, vigorous, direct and not often 
merely declamatory. Still, we are left to regret that he has not 
left behind him such monuments of his power, as did our colossal 
Webstei'. In the clear, polished, classic prose of the Marshfield 
statesman, we have a worthy index of his intellect. We can 
measure him with satisfactory accuracy, and feel assured that we 
are acquainted with his mental greatness. It is not so with Clay. 
He has left nothing to tell adequately the story of his power. 

As a man, Henky Clay's character was eminently striking 
and attractive. He was gallant, witty, ready, and self-possessed. 
His social affections were strong and lively. The death of his 



THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 129 

children affected him to swooning. His personal friends were 
devoted to the last decree. A laroe sum was raised amono- 
them, to lift ofi' the incumbrances from his estate, and with the 
greatest delicacy transferred to his account. 

No public man, since Washington, has received, in this countiy, 
such testimonials of esteem, or has drawn out so much the love 
of the people. He excited, wherever he went in his travels, an en- 
thusiasm such as a prince or an emperor might hopelessly envy. 
The fascination of his manners and conversation was almost 
equal to that of his eloquence ; and this is not the testimony of 
his partial and "unostentatious countrymen only, but of titled and 
courtly foreigners. Lord Morpeth, in his " Travels in America," 
says, "I heard Mr. Clay in the Senate once, but every one told 
me that he was laboring under feebleness and exhaustion, so 
that I could only perceive the great charm in the tones of his 
voice. I think tjiis most attractive quality was still more per- 
ceivable in private intercourse, as I certainly never met any pub- 
lic man, either in his count'-y or in mine, always excepting Mr. 
Canning, who exercised such evident fascination over the minds 
and aflections of his friends and followers as Henry Clay. I 
thought his society most attractive, easy, simple, and genial with 
great natural dignity. If liis countrymen made better men 
Presidents, I should applaud their virtue in resisting the spel] 
of his eloquence and attractions." 

But the sagacious statesman, the captivating orator, and the 
chivalrous man exists now, so far as we are concerned, only in 
his deeds and in history. He has bequeathed to us his fame, 
and in return we can talk only of columns and statues to his 
memory. Vain oblation ! in respect to which one of Kentucky's 
sons,* unsurpassed by any other in eloquence, utters these im- 
passioned sentiments : — 

" The friends of Mr. Clay meditate the construction of a mon- 
ument, to mark the spot where repose the remains of that frail 
tenemeni, which once held in his fiery soul. It will be honor- 
able to them, and will form a g-raceful ornamen^ *o the a-reen 



* Thumas F. Marshall. 



130 ' THE LIFE OF HENRY CLAY. 

woods which surround the city of whicli he had himself been so 
long the living- ornament ; but it will be useless to him or his 
fame. He trusted neither himself nor fame to mechanical hands 
or perishable materials. ' Exegit monumentum perennius aere.' 
They may lay their pedestals of granite — they may rear their 
polished columns till they pierce and flout the skies — they may 
cover their marble pillars all over with the blazonry of his deeds, 
the trophies of his triumphant genius, and surmount them with 
images of his form wrought by the cunningest hands — it mat- 
ters not — he is not there. The prisoned eagle has burst the 
bars, and soared away from strife, and conflict, and calumny. 
He is not dead — he lives. I mean not the life eternal in j'on 
other world of which religion teaches, but here on earth he 
lives, the life which men call fame, that life the hope of which 
forms the solace of hii-h ambition, Avhich cheers and sustains the 
brave and wise and good, the champions of truth and human- 
kind, through all their labors — that life is his beyond all chance or 
change, growing, expansive, quenchless as time and human 
memoiy. He needs no statue — he desired none. It was the 
image of his soul he wished to perpetuate, and he has stamped 
it himself in lines of flame upon the souls of his countrymen. 
Not all the marbles of Carrara, fashioned by the chisel of An- 
gelo into the mimicry of breathing life, could convey to the 
senses a likeness so perfect of himself as that which he has left 
upon the minds of men. He carved his own statue, he built his 
own monument. In youth he laid the base broad as his whole 
country, that it might well sustain the mighty structure he had 
designed. He labored heroically through life on the colossal 
shaft. In 1 850, the last year of the first half of the nineteenth 
century, he prepared the healing measures which bear his name, 
as the capital well proportioned and in perfect keeping with the 
now finished column, crowned his work, saw that it was good 
and durable, sprang to its lofty and commanding summit, and 
gazing fiv>m that lone height upon a horizon which embraced all 
coming time, with eternity for his background, and the eyes of 
the whole woild riveted upon his solitary figure, consented there 
and thus to die." 



SPEECHES, ETC. 



ON DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, APRIL G, 1810. 



Mr. Clay was first elected to the United States Senate, to fill a vacancy 
for a single session, in 1806. During the year 1807, he delivered an able 
speech on Internal Improoement, ■which lias not been preserved. In 1809, 
the Legislature of Kentucky again elected him United States Senator, and 
in the following remarks, he declared himself in favor of the policy of 
encouraging Domestic Manufactures, by the adoption of a suitable Protective 
Tariff. His name, thus early, became identified, by his first two speeches 
in Congress, with these two branches of national policy, which he after- 
ward called the "American System." This is the first of Mr. Clay's 
speeches on record, during his Congressional career. 



Mr. President : 

The local interest of the quarter of the country, which I have 

the honor to represent, will apologize for the trouble I may give 

you on this occasion. My colleague has proposed an amendment 

to the bill before you, instructing the Secretary of the Navy, to 

provide supplies of cordage, sail-cloth, hemp, etc., and to give a 

preference to those of American growth and manufacture. It 

has been moved by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 

Lloyd) to strike out this part of the amendment; and, in the 

course of the discussion which has arisen, remarks have been 

made on the general policy of promoting manufactures. The 

propriety of this policy is, perhaps, not very intimately connected 

with the subject before us ; but it is, nevertheless, within the 

( ra ) 



132 * SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

legitimate and admissible scope of debate. Under this impres- 
sion I oft'er my sentiments. 

In inculcating the advantao-es of domestic manufactures, it 
never entered the head, I presume, of any one, to change the 
habits of the nation from an agricultural to a manufacturing 
community. No one, I am persuaded, ever thought of con- 
verting the plowshare and the sickle into the spindle and the 
shuttle. And yet this is the delusive and erroneous view too 
often taken of the subject. The opponents of the manufacturing- 
system ti-ansport themselves to the establishments of Manchester 
and Birmingham, and, dwelling on the indigence, vice, and 
wretchedness prevailing there, by pushing it to an extreme, argue 
that its introduction into this country will necessarily be attended 
by the same mischievous and dreadful consequences. But what 
is the fact? That England is the manufacturer of a great part 
of tlie Avorld ; and that, even there, the numbers thus employed 
bear an inconsiderable proportion to the whole mass of popula- 
tion. Were we to become the manufacturers of other nations, 
effects of the same kind might result. But if we limit our efforts, 
by our own wants, the evils apprehended would be found to be 
chimerical. The invention and improvement of machinery, for 
which the present age is so remarkable, dispensing in a great 
degree with manual labor ; and the employment of those persons, 
who, if we were engaged in the pursuit of agriculture alone, 
would be either unproductive, or exposed to indolence and im- 
morality ; will enable us to supply our wants without withdraw- 
ing our attention from ao-Hculture — that first and o-i-eatest source 
of national w^ealth and happiness. A judicious American farmer, 
in the household way, manufactures whatever is requisite for liis 
family. He squanders but little in the gewgaws of Europe. He 
presents in epitome, what the nation ought to be in extenso. 
Their manufactories should bear the same proportion, and effect 
the same object in relation to the whole community, which the 
part of lii? liousehold employed in domestic manufacturing, bears 
to the whole family. It is certainly desirable, that the exports 
of the country should continue to be the surplus production of 
tillage, and not become those of manufactuiin"- establishments. 



ON DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. 133 

But it is important to diminish our imports ; to furnish ourselves 
with clothing, made by our own industry ; and to cease to be 
dependent, for the very coats we wear, upon a foreign and per- 
haps inimical country. The nation that imports its clothing 
from abroad is but little less dependent than if it imported 
its bread. 

The fallacious course of reasoning ursfed asfainst domestic 
manufactures, namely, the distress and servitude produced by 
those of England, would equally indicate the propriety of aban- 
doning agriculture itself. Were you to cast your eyes upon the 
miserable peasantry- of Poland, and revert to the days of feudal 
vassalage, you might tlience draw numerous arguments, of the 
kind now under consideration, against the pursuits of the hus- 
bandman ! What would become of commerce, the favorite theme 
of some gentlemen, if assailed with this sort of weapon ? The 
fraud, perjury, cupidity and corruption, with which it is unhap- 
pily too often attended, would at once produce its overthrow. 
In short, sir, take the black side of the picture, and every human 
occupation will be found pregnant with fatal objections. 

The opposition to manufacturing institutions recalls to my 
recollection the case of a gentleman, of whom I have heard. Ha 
had been in the habit of supplying his table from a neighboring 
cook, and confectioner's shop, and proposed to his wife a reform, 
in this particular. She revolted at the idea. The sio-ht of a 
scullion was dreadful, and her delicate nerves could not bear the 
clattering of kitchen furniture. The gentleman persisted in his 
design ; his table was thenceforth cheaper and better supplied, 
and his neighbor, the confectioner, lost one of his best customers. 
In like manner dame Commerce will oppose domestic manufac- 
tures. She is a flirting, flippant, noisy jade, and if we are gov- 
erned by her fantasies, we shall never put off the muslins of India 
and the cloths of Europe. But I trust that the yeomanry of the 
country, the true and genuine landlords of this tenement, called 
the United States, disregarding lier freaks, will persevere in 
reform, until the whole naiional family is furnished by itself with 
the clothing necessary for its own use. 

It is a subject no less of curiosily than of interest, to trace ihe 



134 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

prejudices in favor of foreign fabrics. In our colonial condition, 
we were in a complete state of dependence on the parent country, 
as it respected manufactures, as well as commerce. For many 
years after the war, such was the partiality for her productions, 
in this country, that a gentleman's head could not withstand the 
influence of solar heat, unless covered with a London hat ; his 
feet could uot bear the pebbles, or frost, unless protected by 
London shoes ; and the comfort or ornament of his person was 
only consulted when his coat was cut out by the shears of a tailor 
"just from London." At length, however, the wonderful dis- 
covert/ has been made, that it is not absolutely beyond the reach 
of American skill and ingenuity, to provide these articles, com- 
binino- with equal elegance greater durability. And I entertain 
no doubt, that, in a short time, the no less important fact will be 
developed, that the domestic manufactories of the United States, 
fostered by Government, and aided by household exertions, are 
fully competent to supply us with at least every necessary article 
of clothing. I therefore, sir, /or one (to use the fashionable cant 
of the day), am in favor of encouraging them, not to the extent 
to which they are carried in England, but to such an extent 
as will redeem us entirely from all dependence on foreign 
countries. There is a pleasure — a pride (if I may be allowed 
the expression, and I pity those who*can not feel the sentiment), 
in being clad in the productions of our own families. Others 
may prefer the cloths of Leeds and of London, but give me those 
of Humphreysville. 

Aid may be given to native institutions in the form of bounties 
and of protecting duties. But against bounties it is urged, that 
you tax the u'hole for the benefit of a part only of the commu- 
nity ; and in opposition to duties it is alleged, that you make the 
interest of one part, the consumer, bend to the interest of another 
part, the manufacturer. The sufficiency of the answer is not 
always admitted, that the sacrifice is merely temporary, being 
ultimately compensated by the greater abundance and superiority 
of the article produced by the stimulus. But, of all practicable 
forms of encouragement, it might have been expected, that the 
one under consideration would escape opposition, if every thing 



ON DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES. 135 

proposed in Congress were not doomed to experience it. What 
is it? Tlie bill contains two provisions — one prospective, antici- 
pating the appropriation for clothing for the army, and the 
amendment proposes extending it to naval supplies, for the year 
1811 — and the other, directing a preference to be given to home 
manufactures and productions, whenever it can be done without 
material detriment to the public service. The object of the fist 
is, to authorize contracts to be made beforehand, with manufac- 
turers, and by making advances to them, under proper security, 
to enable them to supply the articles wanted, in sufficient 
quantity. When it is recollected that they are frequently men 
of limited capitals, it will be acknowledged that this kind of 
assistance, bestowed with prudence, Avill be productive of the 
best results. It is, in fact, only pursuing a principle long acted 
upon, of advancing to contractors with Government, on account 
of the magnitude of their engagements. The appropriation con- 
templated to be made for the year 1811, may be restricted to 
such a sum as, whether we have peace or war, we must neces- 
sarily expend. The discretion is proposed to be vested in offi- 
cers of high contidence, who will be responsible for its abuse, 
and who are enjoined to see that the public service receives no 
material detriment. It is stated, that hemp is now very high, 
and that contracts, made under existing circumstances, will be 
injurious to Government. But the amendment creates no obliga- 
tion upon the Secretray of the Navy, to go into market at this 
precise moment. In fact, by enlarging his sphere of action, it 
admits of his taking advantage of a favorable fluctuation, and 
getting a supply below the accustomed price, if such a fall 
should occur prior to the usual annual appropriation. 

I consider the amendment, under consideration, of the first 
importance, in point of principle. It is evident, that whatever 
doubt may be entertained, as to the general policy of the manu- 
facturing system, none can exist, as to the propriety of our 
being able to furnish ourselves with articles of the first necessity, 
in time of war. Our maritime operations ought not, in such a 
state, to depend upon the casualties of foreign supply. It is not 
necessary that they should. Wiih very little encouragement 



136 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

from Government, I believe we shall not want a pound of Russia 
hemp. The increase of the article in Kentucky has been rapidly- 
great. Ten years ago there were but two rope manufactories in 
the State. Now there are about twenty, and between ten and 
fifteen of cotton bagging ; and the erection of new ones keeps 
pace with the annual augmentation of the quantity of hemp. 
Indeed, the western country alone, is not only adequate to the 
supply of whatever of this article is requisite for our own con- 
sumption, but is capable of affording a surplus for foreign 
markets. The amendment proposed possesses the double recom- 
mendation of encouraging, at the same time, both the manufac- 
ture and the growth of hemp. For by increasing the demand 
for the wrought article, you also increase the demand for the 
raw material, and consequently present new incentives to its 
cultivator. 

The three great subjects that claim the attention of the national 
legislature, are the interests of agriculture, commerce, and man- 
ufactures. We have had before us, a proposition to afford a 
manly protection to the rights of commerce, and how has it been 
treated ? Rejected ! You have been solicited to promote agri- 
culture, by increasing the facilities of internal communication, 
through the means of canals and roads ; and what has been 
done ? Postponed ! We are now called upon to give a trifling 
support to oiir domestic manufactures, and shall we close the 
circle of congressional inefficiency, by adding this also to the 
catalocjue ? 



ON nENE^viNa 



THE 



CHARTER OF THE FIRST BANK OF THE U. STATES. 



m TILE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 1811. 



The following speech will furnish the reader ■with a knowledge of the 
reasons, which induced Mr. Clay to oppose the re-charter of the" First 
United States Bank. 



Mr. President : 

When the subject involved in the motion now under considera- 
tion was depending before the other branch of the Legislature, a 
disposition to acquiesce in their decision was evinced. For 
although the committee who reported this bill, had been raised 
many weeks prior to the determination of that House, on the 
proposition to re-charter tlie bank, except the occasional reference 
to it of memorials and petitions, we scarcely ever heard of it. 
The rejection, it is true, of a measure brought before either 
branch of Congress, does not absolutely preclude the other from 
taking up the same proposition ; but the economy of our time, 
and a just deference for the opinions of others, would seem to 
recommend a delicate and cautious exercise of this power. As 
this subject, at the memorable period Avhen the charter was 
granted, called forth the best talents of the nation, as it has, on 
various occasions, undergone the most thorough investigation, 
and as we can hardly expect that^ it is susceptible of receiving 
any further elucidation, it was to be hoped that we should have 

12 (137) 



138 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

been spared useless debate. This was tlie most desirable, because 
there are, I conceive, much superior claims upon us, for every 
hour of Lhe small portion of the session yet remaining to us. 
Under the operation of these motives, I had resolved to give a 
silent vote, until I felt myself bound, by the defying manner 
of the arguments advanced in support of the renewal, to obey 
the paramount duties I owe my country and its constitution ; to 
make one effort, however feeble, to avert the passage of what 
appears to me a most unjustifiable law. After my honorable friend 
from Virginia (Mr. Giles), had instructed and amused us, with 
the very able and ingenious argument, which he delivered on 
yesterday, I should have still forborne to trespass on the Senate, 
but for the extraordinary character of his speech. He discussed 
both sides of the question, with great ability and eloquence, and 
certainly demonstrated, to the satisfaction of all who heard him, 
both that it was constitutional and unconstitutional, highly proper 
and improper, to prolong the charter of the bank. The honor- 
able gentleman appeared to me in the predicament in which the 
celebrated orator of Virginia, Patrick Henry, is said to have been 
once placed. Engaged in a most extensive and lucrative practice 
of the law, he mistook, in one instance, the side of the cause in 
which he was retained, and addressed the court and jury in a 
very masterly and convincing speecli, in behalf of his antagonist. 
His distracted client came up to him, while he was thus em- 
ployed, and, interrupting him, bitterly exclaimed, "You have 
undone me ! You have ruined me !" " Never mind, give your- 
self no concern," said the adroit advocate ; and, turning to the 
court and jury, continued his argument, by observing, "may it 
please your honors, and you, gentlemen of the jury, I have been 
staling to you what I presume my adversary may urge on his 
side. I will now show you how fallacious his reasonings, and 
groundless his pretensions, are." The skillful orator proceeded, 
satisfactorily I'efuted every argument he had advanced, and gained 
his cause ! — a success with which I trust the exertion of my 
honorable friend will on this occasion be crowned. 

Il has been said, by the honorable gentleman from Georgia 
(Mr. Cniwford), that ihis has been made a party question; 



ON THE BA>fK CHARTER. 139 

althougli the law incoi'porating the bank was passed prior to the 
formation of parties, and when Congress was not biased by 
party prejudices. (Mr. Crawford explained. He did not mean, 
that it had been made a parly question in the Senate. His allu- 
sion was elsewhere.) 1 do not think it altogether fair, to refer 
to the discussions in the House of Representatives, as gentlemen 
belonging to that body have no opportunity of defending- them- 
selves here. It is true that this law was not the effect, but it is 
no less true tliat it was one of the causes, of the political divi- 
sions in this country. And if, during the agitation of the pres- 
ent question, the renewal has, on one side, been opposed on party 
principles, let me ask if, on the other, it has not been advocated 
on similar principles ? Where is the Macedonian phalanx, the 
opposition, in Congress ? I believe, sir, I shall not incur the 
charge of presumptuous prophecy, when I predict we shall not 
pick up from its ranks one single straggler ! And if, on this 
occasion, my worthy friend from Georgia has gone over into the 
camp of the enemy, is it kind in him to look back upon his 
former friends, and rebuke them for the fidelity with which they 
adhere to their old principles ? 

I shall not stop to exanoine how far a representative is bound 
by the instructions of his constituents. That is a question be- 
tween the giver and receiver of the instructions. But I must be 
permitted to express my surprise at the pointed difference which 
has been made between the opinions and instructions of State 
Legislatures, and the opinions and details of the deputations 
with which we have been surrounded from Philadelphia. While 
the resolutions of those Legislatures, — known, legitimate, consti- 
tutional and deliberative bodies, — have been thrown into the 
background, and their interference regarded as officious ; these 
delegations from self-created societies, composed of nobody 
knows whom, have been received by the committee, with the 
utmost complaisance. Their communications have been treasured 
up with the greatest diligence. Never did the Delphic priests 
collect with more holy care the frantic expressions of the agitated 
Pythia, or expound them with more solemnity to the astonished 
Grecians, than has the committee gathered the opinions and 



140 SPEECHES OF HENKY CLAY. 

testimonies of these deputies, and, through the gentleman from 
Massachusetts, pompously detailed them to the Senate ! Phila- 
delphia has her immediate representatives, capable of expiessing 
her w-ishes, upon the floor of the other house. If it be improper 
for States to obtrude upon Congress their sentiments, it is much 
moi-e highly so for the unauthorized deputies of fortuitous con- 
gregations. 

The first sino-ular feature that attracts attention in this bill, is 
the new and unconstitutional veto which it establishes. The 
Constitution has required only, that after bills have passed the 
House of Representatives and the Senate, they shall be presented 
to the President, for his approval or rejection ; and his determin- 
ation is to be made known in ten days. But this bill provides, 
that when all the constitutional sanctions are obtained, and 
when, according to the usual routine of legislation, it ought to be 
considered as a law, it is to be submitted to a new branch of the 
legislature, consisting of the President and twenty-four Directors 
of the Bank of the United States, holding their sessions in Phila- 
delphia ; and if they please to approve it, why then it is to 
become a law ! And three months ( the term allowed by our 
law of May last, to one of the great belligerents, for revoking 
his edicts, after the other shall have repealed his) are granted 
them to decide whether an act of Cono-ress shall be the law of 
the land or not ! — an act Avhich is said to be indispensably 
necessary to our salvation, and without the passage of which, 
universal distress and bankruptcy are to pervade the country. 
Remember, sir, that the honorable gentleman from Georgia, has 
contended that this charter is no contract. Does it, then, become 
the representatives of the nation, to leave the nation at the mercy 
of a coi'poration ? Ought the impending calamities to be left to 
the hazard of a contingent remedy ? 

This vagi-ant power to erect a bank, after having wandered 
througliout the whole Constitution, in quest of some congenial 
spot to fasten upon, has been at length located by the gentleman 
fron\ Georgia on that provision which authoi'izes Congress to lay 
and collect taxes, etc. In 1791, the power is referred to one 
part of the instruuient ; in 1811, to another. Sometimes it is 



ON THE BANK CHARTER. 141 

alleged to be deducible from the power to regulate commerce. 
Hard pressed here, it disappears, and shows itself under the 
grant to coin money. The sagacious Secretary of the Treasury, 
in 1791, pursued the wisest course ; he has taken shelter behind 
general high-sounding and imposing terms. He has declaied, 
in the preamble to the act establishing the bank, that it will 
be very conducive to the sncce^siui conducting of the national 
finances; will tend to give facility to the obtaining of loans, and 
will be productive of considerable advantage to trade and indus- 
try in general. No allusion is made to the collection of taxes. 
What IS the nature of this Government ? It is emphatically 
Federal, vested with an aggregate of specified powers for general 
purposes, conceded by existing sovereignties, who have them- 
selves retained what is not so conceded. It is said that there 
are cases in which it must act on implied powers. This is not 
controverted, but the implication must be necessary, and obvi- 
ously flows from the enumerated power with which it is allied. 
The power to charter companies is not specified in the grant, and 
I contend is of a nature not transferable by mere implication. 
It is one of the most exalted attributes of sovereignty. In the 
exercise of this gigantic power we have seen an East India com- 
pany created, which has carried dismay, desolation and death, 
throughout one of the largest portions of the habitable world,— a 
company which is, in itself, a sovereignty, which has subverted 
empii'es and set up new dynasties, and has not only made war, 
but war against its legitimate sovereign ! Under the influence 
of this power, we have seen arise a South Sea company, and a 
Mississippi company, that distracted and convulsed all Europe, 
and menaced a total overthrow of all credit and confidence, and 
univei'sal bankruptcy. Is it to be imagined that a power so 
vast would have been Jeft by the wisdom of the Constitution to 
doubtful inference ? It has been alleged that there are many 
instances, in the Constitution, where powers in their nature 
incidental, and Avhich would have necessarily been vested alono- 
with the principal, are, nevertheless, expressly enumerated ; and 
the power " to make rules and regulations for the government of 
the land and naval forces," which, it is said, is incidental to the 



142 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

power to raise armies and provide a navy, is given as an example. 
What does this prove ? How extremely cautious the convention 
were to leave as little as possible to implication. In all cases 
where incidental powers are acted upon, the principal and inci- 
dental ought to be congenial with each other, and partake of a 
common nature. The incidental power ought to be strictly sub- 
ordinate and limited to the end proposed to be attained by the 
specified power. In other words, under the name of accom- 
plishing one object which is specified, the power implied ought 
not to be made to embrace other objects, which are not specified 
in the Constitution. If, then, you could establish a bank, to 
collect and distribute the revenue, it ought to be expressly 
restricted to the purpose of such collection and distribution. It 
is mockery, worse than usurpation, to establish it for a lawful 
object, and then to extend it to other objects which are not lawful. 
In deducing the power to create corporations, such as I have 
described it, from the power to collect taxes, the relation and 
condition of principal and incident are prostrated and destroyed. 
The accessory is exalted above the principal. As well might it 
be said, that the great luminary of day is an accessory, a satel- 
lite to the humblest star that twinkles forth its feeble light in the 
firmament of heaven ! 

Suppose the Constitution had been silent as to an individual 
department of this Government, could you, under the power to 
levy and collect taxes, establish a judiciary ? I presume not ; but 
if you could derive the power by mere implication, could you 
vest it with any other authority than to enforce the collection of 
the revenue ? A bank is made for the ostensible purpose of 
aiding in the collection of the revenue, and while it is engaged 
ill this, the most inferior and subordinate of all its functions, it 
is made to diflfuse itself throughout society, and to influence all 
the great operations of credit, circulation and commerce. Like 
the Virginia justice, you tell the man whose turkey had been 
stolen, that your books of precedent furnish no form for his case, 
but that you will grant him a precept to search for a cow, and 
when looking for that he may possibly find his turkey ! You 
say to tliis corporation, we can not authorize vou to discount, to 



ON THE BANK CHAETER. 143 

emit paper, to regulate commerce, etc. No ! Our book has no' 
precedents of that kind. But then we can authorize you to 
collect the i-evenue, and, while occupied Avith that, you may do 
whatever else you please 1 

What is a corporation, such as the bill contemplates ? It is a 
splendid association of favored individuals, taken from the mass 
of society, and invested with exemptions and surrounded by im- 
munities and privileges. The honorable gentleman from Massa- 
chusetts (Mr. Lloyd) has said, that the original law, establishing 
the bank, was justly liable to the objection of vesting in that in- 
stitution an exclusive privilege, the faith of the government being 
pledged, that no other bank should be authorized during its 
existence. This objection, he supposes, is obviated by the bill 
under consideration ; but all corporations enjoy exclusive privi- 
leges ; that is, the corporators have privileges which no others 
possess ; if you create fifty corporations instead of one, you have 
only fifty privileged bodies instead of one. I contend, that the 
States have the exclusive poAver to regulate contracts, to declare 
the capacities and incapacities to contract, and to provide as to 
the extent of responsibility of debtors to their creditors. If Con- 
gress have the power to erect an artificial body, and say it shall 
be endowed with the attributes of an individual ; if you can be- 
stow on this object of your own creation the ability to contract, 
may you not, in contravention of State rights, confer upon slaves, 
infants, and femes covert the ability to contract? And if you 
have the power to say, that an association of individuals shall be 
responsible for their debts only in a certain limited deo-ree, what 
IS to prevent an extension of a similar exemption to individuals ? 
Where is the limitation upon this power to set up corporations ? 
You establish one in the heart of a State, the basis of w-hose 
capital is money. You may erect othei-s whose capital shall 
consist of land, slaves, and personal estates, and thus the whole 
property within the jurisdiction of a State might be absorbed by 
these political bodies. The existing bank contends that it is 
beyond the power of a Stale to tax it, and if this pretension be 
well founded, it is in the power of Congress, by chartering com- 
panies, to dry up all the sources of Slate revenue. Georgia haa 



144 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

undertaken, it is true, to levy a tax on the branch within hei 
jurisdiction, but this law, now under a course of litigation, is 
considered as invalid. The United States own a great deal of 
land in the State of Ohio ; can this government, for the purpose 
of creating an ability to purchase it, charter a company ? Aliens 
are forbidden, I believe, in that State, to hold real estate ; could 
you, in order to multiply purchasers, confer upon them the 
'capacity to hold land, in derogation of the local law ? I imagine 
this will be hardly insisted upon ; and yet there exists a more 
obvious connection between the undoubted power, which is pos- 
sessed by this government, to sell its land, the means of exe- 
cuting that power by increasing the demand in the market, than 
there is between this bank and the collection of a tax. This ffov- 
ernment has the power to levy taxes, to raise armies, provide a ll 

navy, make war, regulate commerce, coin money, etc., etc. It 
would not be difficult to show as intimate a connection between 
a corpoiation, established for any purpose whatever, and some 
one or other of those great powers, as there is between the reve- 
nue and the Bank of the United States. 

Let us inquiie into the actual participation of this bank in the 
collection of the revenue. Prior to the passage of the act of 
1800, requiring the collectors of those ports of entry, at which 
the principal bank, or any of its offices, are situated, to deposit 
with them the custom-house bonds, it had not the smallest 
agency in the collection of the duties. During almost one 
moiety of the period to which the existence of this institution 
was limited, it was nowise instrumental in the collection of that 
revenue, to which it is now become indispensable ! The collec- 
tion, previous to 1 800, was made entirely by the collectors ; and 
even at present, where there is one port of entry, at which this 
bank is employed, there are eight or ten at which the collection 
is made as it was before 1800. And, sir, what does this bank or 
its branches, Avhere resort is had to it ? It does not adjust with 
the mercliant the amount of duty, nor take his bond; nor, if the 
bond is nor paid, coerce the payment by distress or otherwise. 
In fact, It lias no aclivo agency whatever in the collection. Its 
opfratioii is merely passive ; that is, if the obligor, after his bond !' 



ON THE BANK CHAETER. 145 

is placed in the bank, discharges it, all is very well. Such is 
the mighty aid afforded by this tax-gatherer, without which the 
government can not get along ! Again, it is not pretended that 
the very limited assistance which this institution does in truth 
render, extends to -any other than a single species of tax, that is, 
duties. In the collection of the excise, the direct and other inter- 
nal taxes, no aid was derived from any bank. It is true, in the 
collection of those taxes, the former did not obtain the same indul- 
gence which the merchant receives in paying duties. But what 
obliges Congress to give credit at all ? Could it not demand 
prompt payment of the duties ? And, in fact, does it not so de- 
mand in many instances ? Whether credit is given or not, is a 
matter merely of discretion. If it be a facility to mercantile 
operations (as I presume it is) it ought to be granted. But I 
deny the right to engraft upon it a bank, which you would not 
otherwise have the power to erect. You can not create the neces- 
sity of a bank, and then plead that necessity for its establishment. 
In the administration of the finances, the bank acts simply as a 
payer and receiver. The Secretary of the Treasury has money 
in New-York, and wants it in Charleston ; the bank will furnish 
him with a check, or bill, to make the remittance, which any 
merchant would do just as well. 

I will now proceed to show by fact, actual experience, not 
theoretic reasoning, but by the records of the Treasury them- 
selves, that the operations of that department may be as well 
conducted without, as with this bank. The delusion has con- 
sisted in the use of certain high-sounding phrases, dextrously 
used on the occasion ; " the collection of the revenue," "the ad- 
ministration of the finance," " the conducting of the fiscal affairs 
of the government," the usual language of the advoca es of the 
bank, extort express assent, or awe into acquiescence, without 
inquiry or examination into its necessity. About the commence- 
ment of this year there appears, by the report of the Secretary 
of the Treasury of the seventh of January, to have been a little 
upward of two millions and four hundred thousand dollars in the 
treasury of the United States ; and more than one-third of this 
whole sum was in the vaults of local banks. In several instances. 



146 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

where opportunities existed of selecting the bank, a preference 
has been given to the State Bank, or at least a portion of the de- 
posits has been made with it. In New- York, for example, there 
were deposited with the Manhatlau Bank one hundred and 
eighty-eight thousand and six hundred and seventy dollars, 
although a branch bank is in that city. In this District, one hun- 
dred and fifteen thousand and eighty dollars were deposited with 
the Bank of Columbia, although hei-e also is a branch bank, and 
yet the State banks are utterly unsafe to be trusted ! If the money, 
after the bonds are collected, is thus placed with these banks, I 
presume there can be no difficulty in placing the bonds them- 
selves there, if they must be deposited with some bank for col- 
lection ; which I deny. 

Ao-ain, one of the most important and complicated branches 
of the Treasury Department, is the management of our landed 
system. The sales have, in some years, amounted to upward 
of half a million of dollars, and are generally made upon credit, 
and yet no bank whatever is made use of to facilitate the collec- 
tion. After it is made, the amount, in some instances, has been 
deposited with banks, and, according to the Secretary's Report, 
which I have before adverted to, the amount so deposited, was, 
in January, upward of three hundred thousand dollars, not one 
cent of which was in the vaults of the Bank of the United States, 
or in any of its branches, but in the Bank of Pennsylvania, 
its branch at Pittsburg, the Marietta Bank, and the Kentucky 
Bank. Upon the point of responsibility, I can not subscribe to 
the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury, if it is meant 
that the ability to pay the amount of any deposits which the 
Government may make, under any exigency, is greater than that 
of the State banks ; that the accountability of a ramified institu- 
tion, whose affairs are managed by a single head, responsible for 
all its members, is more simple than that of a number of inde- 
pendent and unconnected establishments, I shall not deny ; but, 
with regard to safety, I am strongly inclined to think it is on the 
side of the local banks. The corruption or misconduct of the 
parent, or any of its branches, may bankrupt or destroy the 
whole system, and the loss of the Government in that event, will 



ON THE BANK CHARTER. 147 

be of the deposits made with each ; whereas, in the failure of 
one State Bank, tlie loss will be confined to the deposit in the 
vault of that bank. It is said to have been a part of Burr's plan 
to seize on the branch bank, at New Orleans. At that period, 
large sums, important from La Vera Cruz, are alleged to have 
been deposited with it, and if the traitor had accomplished the 
design, the Bank of the United States, if not actually bankrupt, 
might have been constrained to stop payment. 

It is urged by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lloyd), 
that as this nation advances in commerce, wealth, and popula- 
tion, new energies will be unfolded, new wants and exigencies 
will arise, and hence he infers that powers must be implied from 
the Constitution. But, sir, the question is, shall we stretch the 
instrument to embrace cases not fairly within its scope, or shall 
we resort to that remedy, by amendment, which the Constitution 
prescribes ? 

Gentlemen contend, that the construction which they give to 
the Constitution, has been acquiesced in by all parties and under 
all administrations ; and they rely particularly on an act, which 
passed in 1804, for extending a branch to New Orleans; and 
another act of 1807, for punishing those who should forge or 
utter forged paper of the bank. With regard to the first law, 
passed, no doubt, upon the recommendation of the Treasury 
Department, I would remark, that it was the extension of a 
branch to a Territory, over which Congress possesses the power 
of legislation almost uncontrolled, and where, without any 
constitutional impediment, charters of incorporation may be 
granted. As to the other act, it was passed no less for the 
benefit of the community tlian the bank ; to protect the ignorant 
and unwary from counterfeit paper, purporting to have been 
emitied by the bank. When gentlemen are claiming the ad- 
vantage supposed to be deducible from acquiescence, let me 
inquire what they would have had those to do, who believed the 
establishment of a bank an encroachment upon State rights. 
Were they to have resisted, and how? By force ? Upon the 
change of parties, in 1 8uO, it must be well recollected, thai the 
grea'pst I'Mlainiii'^s upi-e ])redici"d as a consequence of that event. 



148 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

Intentions were ascribed to the new occupanls of power, of viola- 
ting the public faith, and prostrating national credit. Under 
such circumstances, that they should act with great circumspec- 
tion was quite natural. They saw in full operation a bank, 
chartered by a Congress who had as much right to judge of 
their constitutional powers, as their successors. Had they 
revoked the law which gave it existence, the institution would, 
in all probability, have continued to transact business notwith- 
standing. The judiciary would have been appealed to, and, 
l;om the known opinions and predilections of the judges then 
composing it, they would have pronounced the act of incorpora- 
tion, as in the nature of a contract, beyond the repealing power 
of any succeeding legislature. And, sir, what a scene of 
confusion would such a state of things have presented ; an 
act of Congress, which was law in the statute book, and a 
nullity on the judicial records ! "Was it not the wisest to wait 
the natural dissolution of the corporation, rather than accelerate 
that event by a repealing law involving so many delicate con- 
siderations ? 

When gentlemen attempt to carry this measure upon the 
ground of acquiescence or precedent, do they forget that we are 
not in Westminster Hall ? In courts of justice, the utility of 
uniform decision exacts of the judge a conformity to the adjudi- 
cation of his predecessor. In the interpretation and administra- 
tion of the law, this practice is wise and proper, and without it, 
every thing depending upon the caprice of the judge, we should 
have no security for our dearest rights. It is far otherwise when 
applied to the source of legislation. Here no rule exists but the 
Constitution, and to legislate upon the ground, merely, that our 
predecessors thought themselves authorized, under similar cir- 
cumstances, to legislate, is to sanctify error and perpetuate 
usurpation. But if we are to be subjected to the trammels of 
precedent, I claim, on tlie other hand, the benefit of the restric- 
tions under which the intelligent judge cautiously receives them. 
It is an established rule, that to give to a previous adjudication 
any effect, the mind of the judge who pronounced it must have 
boon awakfncd in iho subject, and it must liave been a deliberate 



ON THE BANK CHAETER. 149 

opinion formed after full argument. In technical language, 
it must not have been sub silentio. Now the acts of 1804 
and 1 807, relied upon as pledges for the re-chartering of this 
company, passed not only without any discussions whatever 
of the constitutional power of Congress to establish a bank, 
but, I venture to say, without a single member having had his 
attention drawn to this question. I had the honor of a seat 
in the Senate when the latter law passed, probably voted for it, 
and I declare, with the utmost sincerity, that I never once 
thought of that point, and I appeal confidently to every honor- 
able member who was then present, to say if that was not his 
situation. 

This doctrine of precedents, applied to the Legislature, appears 
to me to be fi-aught with the most mischievous consequences. 
The great advantage of our system of government over all others, 
is, that we have a written Constitution defining its limits, and 
prescribing its authoriiies ; and that, however, for a time, foction 
may convulse the nation, and passion and party prejudices sway 
its functionaries, the season of reflection will recur, when, calmly 
retracing their deeds, all aberrations from fundamental principle 
will be corrected. But once substitute practice for principle ; 
the exposition of the Constitution for the text of the Constitution, 
and in vain shall we look for the instrument in the instrument 
itself! It will be as diflfused and intangible as the pretended 
Constitution of Eno-land ; and must be sought for in the statute 
book, in the fugitive journals of Congress, and in the reports of 
the Secretary of the Treasury ! What would be our condition, 
if we were to take the interpretations given to that sacred book, 
Avhich is, or ought to be, the criterion of our faith, for the book 
itself? We should find the Holy Bible buried beneath the 
interpretations, glosses and comments of councils, synods and 
learned divines, which have produced swarms of intolerant and 
furious sects, partaking less of the mildness and meekness of 
their origin, than of a vindictive spirit of hostility toward each 
other! They ought to afford us a solemn warning to make that 
Constitution, which we have sworn to support, our invariable 
guide. 



150 SPKEOHES OF HENBY CLAY. 

I conceive, then, sir, that we were not empowered by the 
ConstituLion, nor bound by any practice under it, to renew the 
charter of this bank, and I might here rest the argument. But 
as there are strong objections to the renewal on the score of 
expediency, and as the distresses which will attend the dissolu- 
tion of the bank have been greatly exaggerated, I will ask for 
your indulgence for a few moments longer. That some temporary 
inconvenience Avill arise, I shall not deny ; but most ground- 
lessly have the recent failures in New York been attributed to 
the discontinuance of this bank. As well might you ascribe to 
that cause the failures of Amsterdam and Hambuig, of London 
and Liverpool. The embarrassments of commerce, the seques- 
trations in France, the Danish captures ; in fine, the belligerent 
edicts are the obvious sources of these failures. Their imme- 
diate cause is the return of bills upon London, drawn upon the 
faith of unproductive or unprofitable shipments. Yes, sir, the 
protests of the notaries of London, not those of New York, have 
occasioned these bankruptcies. 

The power of a nation is said to consist in the sword and the 
purse. Perhaps, at last, all power is resolvable into that of the 
purse, for with it you may command almost every thing else. 
The specie circulation of the United Slates is estimated, by some 
calculators, at ten millions of dollars, and if it be no more, one 
moiety is in the vaults of this bank. May not the time arrive, 
when the concentration of such a vast portion of the circulating 
medium of the country in the hands of any corporation, will be 
dangerous to our liberties ? By whom is this immense power 
wielded ? By a body, that, in derogation of the great principle 
of all our institutions, responsibility to the people, is amenable 
only to a few stockholders, and they chiefly foreigners. Suppose 
an attempt to subvert this Government, would not the traitor first 
aim, by force or corruption, to acquire the treasure of this com- 
pany ? Look at it in another aspect. Seven tenths of its capital 
arc in the hands of foreigners, and these foreigners chiefly 
English subjects. We are possibly on the eve of a rupture wiih 
that nation. Should such an event occur, do you apprehend 
that the English Premier would experience any difficulty in 



I 



ON THE BANK CHARTER. 151 

obtaining Uie entire control of this institution ? Republics, above 
all other Governments, ought most seriously to guard against 
foreign influence. All history proves, that the internal dissen- 
sions excited by foreign intrigue have produced the downfall of 
almost every free government that has hitherto existed ; and yet, 
gentlemen contend that we are benefited by the possession of 
this foreign capital ! If we could have its use, without its* 
attending abuse, I should be gratified also. But it is in vain to 
expect the one without the other. Wealth is power, and, under 
whatsoever form it exists, its proprietor, whether he lives on 
this or the other side of the Atlantic, will have a proportionate 
influence. It is argued, that our possession of this English 
capital gives us a groat influence over the British Government. 
It' iliis reasoning be sound, we had better revoke the interdiction 
as to aliens holding land, and invite foreigners to engross the 
whole property, real and personal, of the country. We had 
better, at once, exchange the condition of independent proprie- 
tors for that of stewards. We should then be able to govern 
foreign nations, according to the reasoning of the gentlemen on 
the other side. But let us put aside this theory and appeal to 
the decisions of experience. Go to the other side of the Atlantic 
and see what has been achieved for us there, by Englishmen 
holding seven tenths of the capital of this bank. Has it released 
from galling and ignominious bondage one solitary American 
seaman, bleeding under British oppression ? Did ic prevent 
the unmanl}' attack upon the Chesapeake ? Did it arrest the 
promulgation, or has it abrogated the orders in coixncil, — 
those orders which have given birth to a new era in commerce ? 
In spite of all its boasted effect, are not the two nations brought 
to the very brink of war ? Are we quite sure, that, on this 
side of the water, it has had no effect favorable to British 
interests. It has often been stated, and although I do not know 
that it is susceptible of strict proof, I believe it to be a fact, 
that this bavjk exercised its influence in support of Jay's 
treaty ; and may it not have contributed to blunt the public 
sentiment, or paralyze the eff'orts of this nation against British 



ao'o'ression 



152 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

The Duke of Nortlnimberknd is said to be the most consider- 
able stockholder in the Bank of the United States. A late Lord 
Chancellor of England, beside other noblemen, was a large 
stockholder. Suppose the Prince of Essling, the Duke of 
Cadore, and other French dignitaries, owned seven eighths of 
the capital of this bank, should we witness the same exertions (I 
allude not to any made in the Senate) to re-charter it? So far 
from it, would not the danger of French influence be resounded 
throuo-hout the nation ? 

I shall, therefore, give my most hearty assent to the motion 
for striking out the first section of the bill. 



I 



ON THE 

UNITED STATES BANK QUESTION. 

ADDRESS TO HIS CONSTITUENTS AT LEXINGTON, JUNE 3, 1816. 



Mr. Clay delivered a speech in the Senate of the United States, in 1811, 
in which he opposed tiie re-cliarter of the first Bank of the United States. 
In the year 1816, he advocated a bill introduced by Mr. Calhoun of 
South-Carolina, for incorporating a similar institution. This bill passed 
both Houses of Congress, and was signed by President Madison.* The 
following address, in which Mr. Clay explains to electors of the Congres- 
sional district of Kentucky, which he represented, the reasons for hia 
change of opinion on tlie su1)ject of a National bank, will satisfy all candid 
persons, of his sincerity and patriotism, on both occasions. 



" On one subject, that of the Bank of the United States, ia 
which at the late session of Congress he gave his humble sup- 
port, Mr. Clay felt particularly anxious to explain the grounds 
on which he had acted. This explanation, if not due to his OAvn 
character, the State, and the district to which he belonged, had 
a right to demand. It would have been unnecessary, if his 
observations, addressed to the House of Representatives, pend- 
ing the measure, had been published ; but they were not pub- 
lished, and why they were not published he was unadvised. 

"When he was a member of the Senate of the United Slates, 
he was induced to oppose the renewal of the charter to the old 
Bank of the United States by three general considerations. The 
first was, that he was instructed to oppose it by the Legislature 
of the State. What were the reasons that operated with the 

* This speech was never published. 

( 153) 



154 SPEECHES OF IIENKY CLAY. 

Leo-islalure, in o-ivino- the instruction, he did not know. He has 
understood from members of that body, at the time it was given, 
that a clause, declaring- that Congress had no power to grant the 
charter, was stricken out ; from which it might be inferred, 
either that the Legislature did not believe a bank to be unconsti- 
tutional, or that it had formed no opinion on that point. This in- 
ference derives additional strength from the fact, that, although the 
two late senators from this State, as well as the present senators, 
voted for a National bank, the Legislature, which must have been 
well apprised that such a measure was in contemplation, did not 
again interpose, either to protest against the measure itself, or to 
censure the conduct of those senators. From this silence on the 
part of a body which has ever fixed a watchful eye upon the 
proceedings of the general government, he had a right to believe, 
that the Legislature of Kentucky saw, without dissatisfaction, the 
proposal to establish a national bank ; and that its opposition to 
the former one was upon grounds of expediency, applicable to 
that corporation alone, or no longer existing. But when, at the 
last session, the question came up as to the establishment of a 
national bank, being a member of the House of Representatives, 
the point of inquiry with him, was, not so much what was the 
opinion of the Legislature, although undoubtedly the opinion of 
a body so respectable would have great weight with him under 
any circumstances, as, what Avere the sentiments of his immediate 
constiLuents. These he believed to be in favor of such an insti- 
tution from the following circumstances : In the first place, his 
predecessor (Mr. Hawkins) voted for a national bank, without 
the slightest murmur of discontent. Secondly, during the last 
fall, when he was in his district, he conversed freely with many 
of his constituents upon that subject, then the most common 
topic of conversation, and all, without a single exception, as fai 
as he recollected, agreed that it was a desirable if not the only 
efficient remedy for the alarming evils in the currency of the 
country. And, lastly, during the session, he received many 
letters from his constituents, prior to the passage of the bill, all 
of which concurred, be believed, without a solitary exception, in 
advising the measure. So far, then, from beino- instructed by 



ON THE BANK QUESTION. 155 

his district to oppose the bank, he had what was perhaps tanta- 
mount to an instruction lo support it — ihe acquiescence of his 
constituents in the vote of their former representative, and the 
communications, oral and written, of the opinions of many of 
them in favor of a bank. 

"The next consideration which induced him to oppose the 
renewal of the old charter, was, that he believed the corporaticn 
had, duiing a portion of the period of its existence, abused its 
powers and sought to subserve the views of a political paity. 
Instances of its oppression, for that purpose, were asserted to 
have occurred at Philadelphia and at Charleston ; and, although 
denied in Congress by the friends of the institution, during the 
discussions on tlie application for the renewal of the charter, they 
were, in his judgment, satisfactorily made out. This oppression, 
indeed, was admitted in the House of Representatives, in the 
debate on the present bank, by a distinguished member of that 
party which had so warmly espoused the renewal of the old 
charter. It may be said, what security is there, that the new 
bank will not imitate this example of oppression ? He answered, 
the fate of the old bank, warning all similar institutions to shun 
politics, with which they ought not to have any concern ; the 
existence of abundant competition, arising from the great multi- 
plication of banks ; and the precautions which are to be found 
in the details of the present bill. 

"A third consideration upon which he acted in 1811, was, 
that as the power to create a corporation, such as was proposed 
to be continued, was not specifically granted in the Constitution, 
and did not then appear to him to be necessary to carry into 
effect any of the powers which were specifically granted, Congress 
was not authorized to continue the bank. The Constitution, 
he said, contained powers delegated and prohibitory, powers 
expressed and constructive. It vests in Congress all powers 
necessary to give effect to the enumerated powers — all that may 
be necessary to put into motion and activity the machine of Gov- 
ernment which it constructs. The powers that maybe so neces- 
sarv are deducible by construction. They are not defined in the 
Constitution. Thev are. from their nature, indefinable. When 



I 



156 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY, 

the question is in relation to one of these powers, the point ot 
inquiry should be, is its exertion necessary to carry into effect 
any of the enumerated powers and objects of the general govern- 
ment? With regard to the degree of necessity, various rules 
have been, at different times, laid down ; but, perhaps, at last, 
there is no other than a sound and honest judgment exercised, 
under the checks and control which belong to the Constitution 
and to the people. 

" The constructive powers being auxiliary to the specifically 
granted powers, and depending for their sanction and existence 
upon a necessity to give effect to the latter, which necessity is to 
be sought for and ascertained by a sound and honest discretion, 
it is manifest that this necessity may not be perceived, at one 
time, and under one state of things, when it is perceived at 
another time, under a different state of things. The Constitution, 
it is true, never changes ; it is always the same ; but the force 
of circumstances and the lights of experience may evolve to the 
follible persons charged with its administration, the fitness and 
necessity of a particular exercise of constructive power to-day, 
which they did not see at a former period. 

" Mr. Clay proceeded to remark, that when the application 
was made to renew the old charter of the Bank of the United 
States, such an institution did not appear to him to be so neces- 
sary to the fulfillment of any of the objects specifically enume- 
rated in the Constitution, as to justify Congress in assuming, by 
.construction, a power to establish it. It was supported mainly 
upon the ground that it was indispensable to the treasury opera- 
tions. But the local institutions in the several States were at 
that time in prosperous existence, confided in by the commu- 
nity, having a confidence in each other, and maintaining an 
intercourse and connection the most intimate. Many of them 
were actually employed by the Treasury to aid that department, 
i)i a part of its fiscal arrangements ; and they appeared to him to 
be fully capable of affording to it all the facility that it ought to 
desire in all of them. They superseded, in his judgment, the 
necessity of a nalional institution. But how stood the case in 
1810, wlu'ii ho was called upon again to examine the ji wer of 



ON THE BANK QUESTION. 157 

the general government to incorporate a national bank ? A total 
cliano-e of circumstances was presented; events of the utmost 
magnitude had intervened. 

"A general suspension of specie payments had taken place, 
and this had led to a train of consequences of the most alarming 
nature. He beheld, dispersed over the immense extent of the 
United States, about three hundred banking institutions, enjoy- 
in o- in different degrees the confidence of the public, shaken as to 
them all, under no direct control of the general government, and 
subject to no actual responsibility to the State authorities. These 
institutions were emitting the actual currency of the United 
States ; a currency coiisisting of a paper, on which they neither 
paid interest nor principal, while it was exchanged for the paper 
of the community, on which both were paid. He saw these insti- 
tutions in fact exercising what had been considered, at all times 
and in all countries, one of the highest attributes of sovereignty, 
the regulation of the current medium of the country. They 
were no longer competent to assist the Treasury in either of the 
great operations of collection, deposit, or distribution, of the 
public revenues. In fact, the paper which they emitted, and 
which the Treasury, from the force of events, found itself con- 
strained to receive, was constantly obstructing the operations of 
that department. For it would accumulate where it was not 
wanted, and could not be used where it was wanted for the pur- 
poses of Government, without a ruinous and arbitrary brokerage. 
Every mun who paid or received from the Government, paid or 
received as much less than he ought to have done as Avas the 
difference between the medium in which the payment was 
effected and specie. Taxes were no longer uniform. In New- 
England, where specie payments have not been suspended, the 
people were called upon to pay larger contributions than where 
they were suspended. In Kentucky, as much more was paid 
by the people in their taxes than was paid, for example, in 
the State of Ohio, as Kentucky paper was worth more than 
Ohio paper. 

"It appeared to Mr. Clay, that, in this condition of things, 
the general goveiument e-iiuM depend no longer upon tliese local 



158 SPEECHES OF IIENKY CLAY. 

institutions, multiplied and muldplying daily; coming into 
existence by the bveatli of eighteen Slate sovereignties, some of 
which by a single act of volition had created twenty or thirty at 
a time. Even if the resumption of specie payments could have 
been anticipated, the general government remaining passive, it 
did not seem to him that the general government ought longer to 
depend upon these local insdlulions exclusively for aid in its 
operations. But he did not believe it could be justly so antici- 
pated. It was not the interest of all of them that the renewal of 
specie payments should take place, and yet, without concert 
between all or most of them it could not be effected. With 
reo-ard to those disposed to return to a regular state of things, 
great difficuUies might arise, as to the time of its commencement. 
" Considering, then, that the state of the currency was such 
that no thinking man could contemplate it without the most 
serious alarm ; that it threatened general distress, if it did not 
ultimately lead to convulsion and subversion of the government ; 
it appeared to him to be the duty of Congress to apply a remedy, 
if a remedy could be devised. A National bank, with other 
auxiliary measures, was proposed as that remedy. Mr. Clat 
said, he determined to examine the question with as little preju- 
dice as possible arising from his former opinion. He knew that 
the safest course to him, if he pursued a cold, calculating pru- 
dence, was to adhere to that opinion, right or wrong. He was 
perfectly aware, that if he changed, or seemed to change it, he 
should expose himself to some censure. But, looking at the sub- 
ject with the light shed upon it by events happening since the 
commencement of the war, he could no longer doubt. A bank 
appeared to him not only necessary, but indispensably neces- 
sary, in connection with another measure, to remedy the evils of 
which all were but too sensible. He pi'eferred, to the sugges- 
tions of the pride of consistency, the evident interests of the com- 
munity, and determined to throw himself upon their candor and 
justice. That which appeared to him in 181 1, under the state 
of things then existing, not to be necessary to the general gov- 
ernment, seemed now to be necessary, under the present state 
of things. Had he then foreseen what now exists, and no 



ON THE BANK QUESTION. 159 

objection had lain against the renewal of the charter other than 
that derived from the Constitution, he should have voted for 
tlie renewal. 

"Other provisions of the Constitution, but little noticed, if 
noticed at all, on the discussions in Congress in 1811,Avould 
seem to urge that body to exert all its powers to restore to a 
sound state tlie money of the country. That instrument confers 
upon Congress the poAver to coin money, and to regulate the 
value of foreign coins ; and the States are prohibited to coin 
money, to emit bills of credit, or to make any thing but gold and 
silver coin a tender in payment of debts. The plain inference 
is, that the subject of the general currency was intended to be 
submitted exclusively to the general government. In point of 
fact, however, the regulation of the general currency is in the 
hands of the State governments, or, which is the same thing, of 
the banks created by them. Their paper lias every quality of 
money, except that of being made a tender, and even this is im- 
parted to it by some States, in the law by which a creditor must 
receive it, or submit to a ruinous suspension of the payment of 
his debt. It was incumbent upon Congress to recover the con- 
trol Avliich it had lost over the general currency. The remedy 
called for, was one of caution and moderation, but of firmness. 
Whether a remedy direclly acting upon the banks and tlieir 
paper thrown into circulation, was in the power of tlie o-eneral 
government or not, i.either Congress nor the community were 
prepared f.r the applicalion of such a remedy. An indirect 
]-emedy, of a milder character, seemed to be furnished by a 
National bank. Going into operation, with the powerful aid of 
the Treasury of the United States, he believed it would be highly 
instrumental in the renewal of specie payments. Coupled with 
the otlier measure adopted by Congress for that object, he 
believed the remedy effectual. The local banks must follow the 
example which the national bank would set them, of redeemino- 
their notes by the payment of specie, or their notes will be dis- 
credited and put down. 

"If the Constitution, then, warranted the establishment of a 
bmk, other considerations, beside those alrea.Iv menlio-iPd, 



1(30 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

Strongly urged it. The want of a general medium is every- 
where felt. Exchange varies continually, not only between 
different parts of the Union, but between diflFerent parts of the 
same city. If the paper of a national bank were not redeemed 
in specie, it would be much better than the current paper, since, 
althouoh its value in comparison with specie might fluctuate, it 
would afford a uniform standard. 

"If political power be incidental to banking corporations, 
there ought, perhaps, to be in the General Government some 
counterpoise to that which is exerted by the States. Such a 
counterpoise might not, indeed, be so necessary, if the States 
exercised the power to incorporate banks equally, or in propor- 
tion to their respective populations. But that is not the case. A 
single State has a banking capital equivalent, or nearly so, to one 
fifth of the whole banking capital of the United States. Four 
States combined, have the major part of the banking capital of 
the United States. In the event of any covulsion, in which the 
distribution of banking institutions might be important, it may be 
urged, that the mischief would not be alleviated by the creation 
of a National bank, since its location must be within one of the 
States. But in this respect the location of the bank is extremely 
favorable, being in one of the middle States, not likely from its 
position, as well as its loyalty, to concur in any scheme for sub- 
verting the Government. And a sufficient security against such 
contingency is to be found in the distribution of branches in 
different States, acting and re-acting upon the parent institution, 
and upon each other." 



ON LNTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 13, 1818 



The vievs of Henry Clay, upon the subject of Internal ImprovementSi 
may be learned from the following able speech, delivered by him in the 
House of Representatives, March 13, 1818, 



I HAVE been anxious to catch the eye of the chairman for a 
few moments, to reply to some of the observations which have 
fallen from various gentlemen. I am awai-e that, in doing this, 
I risk the loss of what is of the utmost value, — the kind favor 
of the House, wearied as its patience is, by this prolonged 
debate. But when I feel what a deep interest the Union at 
large, and particularly that quarter of it whence I come, has, in 
the decision of the present question, I can not omit any oppor- 
tunity of earnestly ui-ging upon the House the propriety of 
retaining the important power which this question involves. It 
will be recollected that if, unfortunately, there should be a ma- 
jority both against the abstract proposition asserting the power, 
and against its practical execution, the power is gone forever, — 
the question is put at rest, so long as the Constitution remains 
as it is ; and with respect to any amendment, in this particular, I 
confess I utterly despair. It will be borne in mind, that the bill 
which passed Congress on this subject, at the last session, was 
rejected by the late President of the United States ; that at the 
commencement of the present session, the President communi- 
cated his clear opinion, after every effort to come to a diflferent 
conclusion, that Congress does not possess the power contended 

14 -N (161) 



162 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

for, and called upon us to take up the subject, in the shape of 
an amendment to the Constitution ; and, moreover, that the pre- 
decessor of the present and late Presidents, has also intimated 
his opinion, that Congress does not possess the power. With 
the great weight and authority of the opinions of these distin- 
guished men against the power, and with the fact, solemnly 
entered upon the record, that this House, after a deliberate 
review of the ground taken by it at the last session, has decided 
against the existence of it (if such, fatally, shall be the decision), 
the power, I i-epeat, is gone, — gone forever, unless restored by 
an amendment of the Constitution. With regard to the practi- 
cability of obtaining such an amendment, I think it altogether 
out of the question. Two different descriptions of persons, 
entertaining sentiments directly opposed, will unite and defeat 
sucli an amendment ; one embracing those whp believe that the 
Constitution, fairly interpreted, already conveys the power; and 
the other, those who tliink that Congress has not and ought not 
to have it. As a large portion of Congress, and probably a 
majority, believes the power to exist, it must be evident, if I am 
right in supposing that any considerable number of that majority 
would vote against an amendment which they do not believe 
necessary, that any attempt to amend would fail. Considering, 
as I do, the existence of the power as of the first importance, 
not merely to the preservation of the union of the States, para- 
mount as that consideration ever should be over all others, but 
to the prosperity of every great interest of the country, agricul- 
ture, manufactures, commerce, in peace and in war, it becomes 
us solemnly, and deliberately, and anxiously, to examine the 
Constitution, and not to surrender it, if fairly to be collected 
from a just interpretation of that instrument. 

With regard to the alarm sought to be created, as to the nature 
of the power, by bringing up the old theme of " State Rights," 
I would observe, that if the illustrious persons just referred to 
are against us in the construction of the Constitution, they are 
on our side as to the harmless and beneficial character of the 
power. For it is not to be conceived, that each of them would 
have recomnipndpd an amendment to the Constilution, if they 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, 163 

believed that the possession of such a power, by the Genei'al 
Government, would be detrimental, much less dangerous, to the 
independence and liberties of the States. What real ground 
is there for this alarm ? Gentlemen have not condescended to 
show how the subversion of the rights of the States is to follow 
from the exercise of the power of inte^-nal improvements by the 
General Government. We contend for the power to make roads 
and canals, to distribute the intelligence, force and productions 
of the country, through all its parts ; and for such jurisdiction 
only over them, as is necessary to their preservation from wanton 
injury and from gradual decay. Suppose such a power is sus- 
tained and in full operation ; imagine it to extend to every canal 
made, or proposed to be made, and to every post road ; how 
inconsiderable and insignificant is the power in a political point 
of view, limited, as it is, with regard to place and to purpose, 
when contrasted with the great mass of powers retained by the 
State sovereignties ! Wliat a small subtraction from the mass ! 
Even upon these roads and canals, the State governments, 
according to our principles, will still exercise jurisdiction over 
every possible case arising upon them, whether of crime or of 
contract, or any other human transaction, except only what 
immediately affects their existence and preservation. Thus 
defined, thus limited, and stripped of all factitious causes of 
alarm, I will appeal to the candor of gentlemen to say, if the 
power really presents any thing frightful in it ? With respect to 
post roads, our adversaries admit the right of way in the General 
Government. There have been, however, on this question, some 
instances of conflict, but they have passed away without any 
serious difficulty. Connecticut, if I have been rightly informed, 
disputed, at one period, the right of passage of the mail on the 
Sabbath. The general government persisted in the exercise 
of the right, and Connecticut herself, and every body else, have 
acquiesced in it. 

That there are two classes of powers in the Constitution, I 
believe has never been controverted by an American politician. 
We can not foresee and provide specifically for all contingencies. 
Man and his language are both imperfect. Hence the existence 



164 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY, 

of construcd()n, and of constructive powers. Hence also the 
rule, that a grant of the end is a grant of the means. If you 
amend the Constitution a thousand times, the same imperfection 
of our nature and our language will attend our new works. 
There are two dangers to which we are exposed. The one is, 
that the general government may relapse into the debility which 
existed in the old confederation, and finally dissolve from the 
want of cohesion. The denial to it of powers plainly conferred, 
or clearly necessary and proper to execute the conferred powers, 
may produce this effect. And I think, with great deference to 
the gentleman on the other side, this is the danger to which their 
principles directly tend. The other danger, that of consolida- 
tion, is, by the assumption of powers not granted nor incident 
to granted powers, or the assumption of powers which have been 
withheld or expressly prohibited. This was the danger of the 
period of 1798-9. For instance, that, in direct contradiction to 
a prohibitory clause of the Constitution, a sedition act was 
passed ; and an alien law was also passed, in equal violation of 
the spirit, if not of the express provisions of the Constitution. It 
was by such measures that the federal party (if parties might be 
named), throwing off the vail, furnished to their adversaries the 
most effectual ground of opposition. If they had not passed 
those acts, I think it highly probable that the current of power 
would have continued to flow in the same channel ; and the 
change of parties in 1801, so auspicious to the best interests of 
the country, as I believe, would never have occurred. 

I beg the committee — I entreat the true friends of the confed- 
erated union of these States — to examine this doctrine of State 
rights, and see to what abusive, if not dangerous consequences, 
it may lead, to what extent it has been carried, and how it has 
varied by the same State at different times. 

My doctrine is, that the States, as States, have no right to 
oppose the execution of the powers which the General Govern- 
ment asserts. Any State has undoubtedly the right to express 
its opinion, in the form of resolution or otherwise, and to pro- 
ceed, by Constitutional means, to redress any real or imaginary 
grievance; but it has no right to withhold its military aid, when 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 165 

called upon by the high authorities of the general government, 
much less to obstruct the execution of a law regularly passed. 
To suppose the existence of such an alarming right, is to sup- 
pose, if not disunion itself, such a state of disorder and confu- 
sion as must inevitably lead to it. 

Greatly as I venerate the State -which gave me birth, and 
much as I respect the judges of its supreme court, several of 
whom are my personal friends, I am obliged to think that some 
of tlie doctrines which that State has recently held concerning 
State rights, are fraught with much danger. If those doctrines 
had been asserted during the late war, a large share of the public 
disapprobation which has been given to Massachusetts would 
have fallen to Virginia. What are these doctrines ? The courts 
of Virginia assert, that they have a right to determine on the 
Constitutionality of any law or treaty of the United States, and to 
expound them according to their own views, even if they should 
vary from the decision of the supreme court of the United 
States. They assert more — that from their decision there can be 
no appeal to the supreme court of the United States : and that 
there exists in Congress no power to frame a law, obliging the 
court of the State, in the last resort, to submit its decision to the 
supervision of the supreme court of the United States ; or, if I 
do not misunderstand the doctrine, to withdraw from the State 
tribunal, controversies involving the laws of the United States, 
and to place them before the Federal Judiciary. I am a friend. 
a true friend, to State rights ; but not in all cases as they are 
asserted. The States have their appointed orbit; so has the 
Union ; and each should be confined within its fair, legitin\ate, 
and Constitutional sphere. We should equally avoid that subtle 
process of argument which dissipates into air the powers of this 
Government, and that spirit of encroachment which would snatch 
from the State, powers not delegated to the general government. 
We shall thus escape both the dangers I have noticed — that of 
relapsing into the alarming weakness of the confederation, which 
is described as a mere rope of sand ; and also that other, perhaps 
not the greatest danger, consolidation. No man deprecates more 
than I do, the idea of consolidation ; yet, between separation and 



IQQ SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

consolidation, painful as would be the alternative, I would greatly ! 

prefer the latter. ! 

I have contended, that the power to construct post roads is 
expressly granted in the power to establish post roads. If it be, 
there is an end of the controversy ; but if not, the next inquiry | 

is, whether that power may be fairly deduced, by implication, i 

from any of the special grants of power. To show that the | 

power is expressly granted, I might safely ^peal to the argu- 
ments already used, to prove that the word establish, in this case, | 
can mean only one thing — the right of making. Several gentle- 
men have contended, that the word has a different sense ; and 
one has resorted to the preamble of the Constitution, to show 
that the phrase "to establish justice," there used, does not con- 
vey the power of creation. If the word "establish" is there to 
be taken in the sense which gentlemen claim for it, that of adop- 
tion or designation, Congress could have a choice only of sys- 
tems of justice pre-existing. Will any gentleman contend, that 
we are obliged to take the Justinian code, the Napoleon code, the 
code of civil, or the code of common or canon law ? Establish- 
ment means in the preamble, as in other cases, construction, 
formation, creation. Let me ask, in all cases of crime, which 
are merely malum prohibitum, if you do not resort to construc- 
tion, to creating when you make the offense? By your laws 
denouncing certain acts as criminal offenses, laws which the 
good of society requires you to pass, and to adapt to our peculiar 
condition, you do construct and create a system of rules, to be 
administered by the judiciary. But gentlemen say, that the 
word can not mean make; that you would not say, for exam- 
ple, to establish a ship, to establish a chair. In the application 
of this, as of all other terms, you must be guided by the nature 
of the subject ; and if it can not properly be used in all cases, it 
does not follow that it can not be in any. And when we take 
into consideration, that, under the old articles of confederation. 
Congress had over the subject of post roads just as much power 
as gentlemen allow to the existing Government, that it was the 
genei-al scope and spirit of the new Constitution to enlarge the 
powers of the oeneral government, and that, in fact, in this very 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 167 

elause, the power to establish post-offices, which was a one pos- 
sessed by the former government, I think that I may safely con- 
sider the aigument, on this part of the subject, as successfully 
maintained. With respect to military roads, the concession that 
they may be made when called for by the emergency, is admit- 
ting that the Constitution conveys the power. And we may 
safely appeal to the judgment of the candid and enlightened, to 
decide between the wisdom of these two constructions, of which 
one requires you to wait for the exercise of your power until the 
arrival of an emergency, which may not allow you to exert it, 
and the other, without denying you the power, if you can exer- 
cise it during the emergency, claims the right of providing 
beforehand against the emergency. 

One member has stated what appeared to him a conclusive 
argument against the power to cut canals, that he had understood 
that a proposition, made in the convention to insert such a power, 
was rejected. To this argument more than one sufficient answer 
can be made. In the first place, the fact itself has been denied, 
and I have never yet seen any evidence of it. But, suppose that 
the proposition had been made and overruled, unless the motives 
of the refusal to insert it are known, gentlemen are not authorized 
to draw the inference that it was from hostility to the poAver, or 
from a desire to withhold it fi'om Congress. May not one of the 
objections be, that the power was fairly to be inferred from some 
of the specific grants of power, and that it was therefore not 
necessary to insert the proposition ; that to adopt it, indeed, 
might lead to weaken or bring into doubt other incidental powers 
not enumerated? A member from New-York (Mr. Storrs), 
whose absence I regret on this occasion, not only on account of 
the great aid which might have been expected from him, but 
from the cause of that absence, has informed me, that, in the 
convention of that State, one of the objections to the Constitution 
by the anti-federalists was, that it was understood to convey to 
the General Government the power to cut canals. How often, in 
the course of the proceedings of this House, do we reject amend- 
ments, upon the sole ground that they are not necessary, the prin- 
ciple of the amendment being already contained in the proposition. 



168 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

I refer to the Federalist, for one moment, to show that the 
only notice taken of that clause of the Constitution which relates 
to post roads, is favorable to my construction. The power, that 
book says, must always be a harmless one. I have endeavored 
to show, not only that it is perfectly harmless, but that every 
exercise of it must be necessarily beneficial. Nothing which 
tends to facilitate intercourse among the States, says the Feder- 
alist, can be unworthy of the public care. What intercourse ? 
Even if restricted on the narrowest theory of gentlemen on the 
other side, to the intercourse of intelligence, they deny that to us, 
since they will not admit that we have the power to repair or 
improve the way, the right of which they yield us. In a more 
liberal and enlarged sense of the word, it will comprehend all 
those various means of accomplishing the object, which are cal- 
culated to render us a homogeneous people — one in feeling, in 
interest, and affection ; as we are one in our political relation. 

Is there not a direct and intimate relation between the power 
to make war, and military roads and canals ? It is in vain that 
the convention have confided to the general government the tre- 
mendous power of declaring war ; have imposed upon it the duty 
to employ the whole physical means of the nation to render the 
war, whatever may be its character, successful and glorious ; 
if the power is withheld of transporting and distributing those 
means. Whether we refer to our own experience, or that of 
other countries, we can not fall to perceive the great value of 
military roads. Those great masters of the world, the Romans, 
how did they sustain their power so many centuries, diffusing law, 
and liberty, and intelligence all around them? They made per- 
manent military roads ; and among the objects of interest which 
Europe now presents are the remains of those Roman roads, which 
are shown to the curious inquirer. If there were no other monu- 
ment remaining of the sagacity and of the illustrious deeds of the 
unfortunate captive of Saint Helena, the internal improvements 
which he made, the road from Hamburg to Basle, would per- 
pofuale his memory to future ages. In making these allusions, 
let me not be misunderstood. I do not desire to see military 
roads established for (he purpose of conquest, but of defense ; 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 169 

and as a part of that preparation which should be made in a 
season of peace for a season of war. I do not wish to see 
this country ever in that complete state of preparation for 
war, for which some contend ; that is, that we should con- 
stantly have a large standing army, well disciplined, and always 
ready to act. 

Some principles drawn from political economists have been 
alluded to, and we are advised to leave things to themselves, 
upon the ground that, when the condition of society is ripe for 
internal improvements, — that is, when capital can be so invested 
with a fair prospect of adequate remuneration, they will be exe- 
cuted by associations of individuals, unaided by Government. 
With ray friend from South Carolina (Mr. Lowndes), I concur 
in this as a general maxim ; and I also concur with him that 
there are exceptions to it. The foreign policy which I think this 
country ought to adopt, presents one of those exceptions. It 
would perhaps be better for mankind, if, in the intercourse 
between nations, all would leave skill and industry to their un- 
stimulated exertions. But this is not done ; and if other powers 
will incite the industry of their subjects, and depress that of our 
citizens, in instances where they may come into competition, we 
must imitate their selfish example. Hence the necessity to pro- 
tect our manufactures. In regard to internal improvements, it 
does not follow, that they will always be constructed whenever 
they will afford a competent dividend upon the capital invested. 
It may be true generally, that in old countries, where there is a 
great accumulation of surplus capital, and a consequent low rate 
of interest, they will be made. But, in a new country, the con- 
dition of society may be ripe for public works long before there 
is, in the hands of individuals, the necessary accumulation of 
capital to effect them ; and, beside, there is generally, in such a 
countr)-, not only a scarcity of capital, but such a multiplicity 
of profitable objects presenting themselves, as to distract the 
judgment. Further ; the aggregate benefit resulting to the 
whole society, from a public improvement, may be such as to 
amplj^ justify the investment of capital in its execution, and yet 
that benefit may be so distributed among different and distant 



170 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

persons, that they can never be got to act in concert. The turn- 
pike roads wanted to pass the Alleghany mountains, and the 
Delaware and Chesapeake canal, are objects of this description. 
Those who will be most benefited by these improvements, reside 
at a considerable distance from the sites of them ; many of those 
persons never liave seen and never will see them. How is it 
possible to regulate the contributions, or to present to individuals 
60 situated a sufficiently lively picture of their real interests, to 
get them to make exertions in effectuating the object, commen- 
surate with their respective abilities? 1 ihink it very possible 
that the capilalist, who should invest his money in one of these 
objects, might not be reimbursed thi'ee per centum annually upon 
it; and yet society, in various forms, might actually reap fifteen 
or twenty per centum. The benefit resulting from a tui-npike 
road, made by private associations, is divided between the capi- 
talist who receives his tolls, the lands through which it passes, 
and which are augmented in their value, and the commodities 
whose value is enhanced by the diminished expense of trans- 
portation. A combination, upon any terms, much less a just 
combination, of all those interests, to effect the improvement, is 
impracticable. And if you await the arrival of the period when 
the tolls alone can produce a competent dividend, it is evident 
that you will have to suspend its execution long after the general 
interests of society would have authoiized it. 

Again, improvements made by private associations, are gene- 
rally made by local capital. But ages must elapse before there 
will be concentrated in certain places, where the interests of the 
whole community may call for improvements, sufficient capital 
to make them. The place of the improvement, too, is not always 
the most interested in its accomplishment. Other parts of the 
Union, — the whole line of the seaboard, — are quite as much, 
if not more interested, in the Delaware and Chesapeake canal, 
as the small tract of country through which it is proposed to 
pass. The same observation will apply to turnpike roads pass- 
ing through the Alleghany mountains. Sometimes the interest 
of the place of the improvement is adverse to the improvement 
and to (he general inteiesf. I would ci'e Louisville, at the rapids 



ON INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 171 

of the Ohio, as an example, whose interest will probably be more 
promoted by the continuance, than the removal of the obstruc- 
tion. Of all the modes in which a government can employ its 
surplus revenue, none is more permanently beneficial than that 
of internal improvement. Fixed to the soil, it becomes a durable 
part of the land itself, diffusing comfort, and activity, and ani- 
mation on all sides. The first direct effect is on the agricultural 
community, into whose pockets comes the difference in the ex- 
pense of transportation between good and bad ways. Thus, if 
Ihe price of transporting a barrel of flour by the erection of the 
Cumberland turnpike should be lessened two dollars, the pro- 
ducer of the article would receive that two dollars more now 
than formerly. 

But, putting aside all pecuniary considerations, there may be 
political motives sufficiently powerful alone to justify certain 
internal improvements. Does not our country present such ? 
How are they to be effected, if things are left to themselves? 
I will not press the subject further. I am but too sensible how 
much I have abused the patience of the committee by trespassing 
so long upon its attention. The magnitude of the question, and 
the deep interest I feel in its rightful decision, must be my 
apology. We are now making the last effort to establish our 
power, and I call on the friends of Congress, of this House, 
or the true friends of State rights (not charging others with 
intending to oppose them), to rally round the Constitution, and 
to support by their votes, on this occasion, the legitimate powers 
of the Legislature. If we do nothing this session but pass an 
abstract resolution on the subject, I shall, under all circum- 
stances, consider it a triumph for the best interests of the coun- 
try, of which posterity will, if we do not, reap the benefit. I 
trust, that by the decision which shall be given, we shall assert, 
uphold and maintain, tlie authoiity of Congress, notwithstanding 
ail that has been or may be said against it. 



ON THE GREEK HEVOLUTIOiX. 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 20, 1824. 



Me. Clay sympathized -n^arrnly with the Greeks, in their sti'uggles for 
independence. The fearful atrocities upon the isle of Scio had excited 
the abhorrence of the whole civilized world against the Turks. Mr. Clay 
took occasion, January 20, 1824, to express his feelings upon the subject, 
in the House of Representatives, in the following terms : 



In rising, let me state distinctly the substance of the original 
proposition of the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster), 
with that of the amendment of the gentleman from South Caro- 
lina (Mr. Poinsett). The resolution proposes a provision of 
the means to defray the expense of deputing a commissioner or 
agent to Greece, whenever the President, who knows, or ought to 
know, the disposition of all the European powers, Turkish or 
Christian, shall deem it proper. The amendment goes to with- 
hold any appropriation to that object, but to make a public 
declaration of our sympathy with the Greeks, and of our good 
wishes for the success of their cause. And how has this simple, 
unpretending, unambitious, this harmless proposition been treated 
in debate ? It has been argued as if it offered aid to the Greeks ; 
as if it proposed the recognition of the independence of their 
government; as a measure of unjustifiable interference in the 
internal affairs of a foreign State, and, finally, as war. And 
they who thus argue the question, while they absolutely surren- 
der themselves to the illusions of their own fervid imaginations, 
and depict, in glowing terms, the monstrous and alarming con- 
sequences which are to spring uu( of a proposition so simple, 
( 1:2 -, 



ON THE GREEK BEVOLUTIOW. 173 

impute to us, who are its humble advocates, quixotism, quixot- 
ism ! While they are taking the most extravagant and bound- 
less range, and arguing any thing and every thing but the 
question before the committee, they accuse us of enthusiasm, of 
giving the reins to excited feeling, of being transported by our 
imaginations. No, sir, the resolution is no proposition for aid, 
nor for recognition, nor for interference, nor for war. 

Mr. Chairman, is it not extraordinary that for these two suc- 
cessive years the President of the United States should have been 
freely indulged, not only without censure, but with universal 
applause, to express the feelings whicli both the resolution and 
the amendment proclaim, and yet, if this house venture to unite 
with him, the most awful consequences are to ensue ? From 
Maine to Georgia, from the Atlantic ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, 
the sentiment of approbation has blazed with the rapidity of 
electricity. Everywhere the interest in the Grecian cause is felt 
with the deepest intensity, expressed in every form, and increases 
with every new day and passing hour. And are the repre- 
sentatives of the people alone to be insulated from the common 
moral atmosphere of the whole land ? Shall we shut our- 
selves up in apathy, and separate ourselves from our country, 
from our constituents, from our chief magistrate, from our 
principles ? 

The measure has been most unreasonably magnified. Gentle- 
men speak of the watchful jealousy of the Turk, and seem to 
think the slightest movement of this body will be matter of seri- 
ous speculation at Constantinople. I believe that neither the 
sublime porte, nor the European allies, attach any such exag- 
gerated importance to the acts and deliberations of this body. 
The Turk will, in all probability, never hear of the names of the 
gentlemen who either espouse or oppose the resolution. It cer- 
tainly is not without a value ; but that value is altogether moral ; 
it throws our little tribute into the vast stream of public opinion, 
which sooner or later must regulate the physical action upon the 
great interests of the civilized world. But, rely upon it, the 
Ottoman is not about to declare war against us because this 
unoffending proposition has been offered by my honorable friend 



174 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

from Massaclnisetts, whose name, however distinguished and 
eminent he may be in our own country, has probably never 
reached tlie ears of the sublime porte. The allied powers are 
not o-oino- to be thrown into a state of consternation, because we 
appropriate some two or three thousand dollars to send an agent 
to Greece. 

The question has been argued as if the Greeks would be ex- 
posed to slill more shocking enormities by its passage ; as if the 
Turkish cimeter would be rendered still keener, and dyed deeper 
and yet deeper in Christian blood. Sir, if such is to be the 
effect of the declaration of our sympathy, the evil has been 
already produced. That declaration has been already publicly 
and solemnly made by the chief magisti-ate of the United Slates, 
in two distinct messages. It is this document which commands 
at home and abroad the most fixed and universal attention ; which 
is translated into all the foreign journals ; read by sovereigns and 
their ministers ; and, possibly, in the divan itself. But our reso- 
lutions are domestic, for home consumption, and rarely, if ever, 
meet imperial or royal eyes. The President, in his messages, 
after a most touching representation of the feelings excited by 
the Greek insurrection, tells you that the dominion of the Turk 
is gone forever; and that the most sanguine hope is entertained 
that Greece will achieve her independence. Well, sir, if this be 
the fact, if the allied powers themselves may, possibly, before 
we again assemble in this hall, acknowledge that independence, 
is it not fit and becoming in this House to make provision that 
our President shall be among the foremost, or at least not among 
the last, in that acknowledgement? So far from this resolution 
being likely to whet the vengeance of the Turk against his 
Grecian victims, I believe its tendency will be directly the 
reverse.. Sir, with all his unlimited power, and in all the eleva- 
tion of his despotic throne, he is at last but man, made as we 
are, of flesh, of muscle, of bone and sinew. He is susceptible 
of pain, and can feel, and has felt the uncalculating valor of 
American freemen in some of his dominions. And when he is 
made to undei'sland that the Executive of this Government is 
sustained by the repre.sentatives of the people ; that our entire 



ON THE GREEK KEVOLUTION. 175 

political fabric, base, column and entablature, rulers and people, 
with heart, soul, mind and strenglli, are all on the side of the 
gallant people whom he would crush, he will be more likely to 
restrain than to increase his atrocities upon suffering and bked- 
iug Greece. 

It has been said, that the proposed measure will be a departure 
from our uniform policy with respect to foreign nations ; that it 
will provoke the wratli of the holy alliance; and thai it will, in. 
effect, be a repetition of their own offense, by an unjustifiable 
interposition in the domestic concerns of other powers. No, sir, 
not even if it authorized, which it does not, an immediate recog- 
nition of Grecian independence. What has been the settled and 
steady policy and practice of this Government, from the days of 
Washington to the present moment ? In the case of France, the 
father of his country and his successors received Genet, Fouchet, 
and all the French ministers who followed' them, whether sent 
from king, convention, anarchy, emperor, or king again. The 
rule we have ever followed has been this : to look at the state of 
the fact, and to recognize that government, be it what it might, 
which was in actual possession of sovereign power. When one 
government is overthrown, and another is established on its 
ruins, without embarrassing ourselves with any of the principles 
involved in the contest, we have ever acknowledged the new and 
actual government as soon as it had undisputed existence. Our 
simple inquiry has been, is there a government de facto? We 
have had a recent and memorable example. When the allied 
ministers retired from Madrid, and refused to accompany Fei-di- 
nand to Cadiz, ours remained, and we sent out a new minister, 
who sought at that port to present himself to the constitutional 
king. Why ? Because it was the government of Spain, in fact. 
Did the allies declare war ao-ainst us for the exercise of this 
incontestable attribute of sovereignty? Did they even transmit 
any diplomatic note, complaining of our conduct? The line of 
our European policy has been so plainly described, that it is 
impossible to mistake it. We are to abstain from all interference 
in their disputes, to take no part in their contests, to make no 
entano-lino- alliances with any of them ; but to assert and exercise 



176 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

our indisputable right of opening and maintaining diplomatic 
intercourse with any actual sovereignty. 

Surely, sir, we need no long or learned lectures about the 
nature of government, and the influence of property or ranks on 
society. We may content ourselves with studying the true char- 
acter of our own people ; and with knowing that the interests are 
confided to us of a nation capable of doing and suffering all 
things for its liberty. Such a nation, if its rulers be faithful, 
must be invincible. I well remember an observation made to 
me by the most ilkistrious woman * of the age, if not of her sex. 
All history showed, she said, that a nation was never conquered. 
No, sir, no united nation, that resolves to be free, can be con- 
quered. And has it come to this? Are we so humbled, so low, 
so debased, that we dare not express our sympathy for suffering 
Greece ; that we dare not articulate our detestation of the brutal 
excesses of which she has been the bleeding victim, lest we might 
offend some one or more of their imperial and royal majesties ? 
If gentlemen are afraid to act rashly on such a subject, suppose, 
Mr. Chairman, that we unite in an humble petition, addressed to 
their majesties, beseeching them, that of their gracious conde- 
scension, they would allow us to express our feelings and our 
sympathies. How shall it run? "We, the representatives of 
theff-ee people of the United States of America, humbly approach 
the thrones of your imperial and royal majesties, and supplicate 
that, of your imperial royal clemency" — I can not go through 
the disgusting recital ; my lips have not yet learned to pronounce 
the sycophantic language of a degraded slave ! Are we so mean, 
so base, so despicable, that we may not attempt to express our 
horror, utter our indignation, at the most brutal and atrocious 
war that ever stained earth or shocked high heaven ; at the fero- 
cious deeds of a savage and infuriated soldiery, stimulated and 
urged on by the clergy of a fanatical and inimical religion, and 
noting in all the excesses of blood and butchery, at the mere 
details of which the heart sickens and recoils ? 

If the great body of Christendom can look on calmly and 



* Madame de Stael. 



ON THE GREEK REVOLUTION, 177 

coolly, while all this is perpetrated on a Christian people, in its 
own immediate vicinity, in its very presence, let us at least evince, 
that one of its remote extremities is susceptible of sensibility to 
Christian wrongs, and capable of sympathy for Christian sufter- 
ings ; that in this remote quarter of the world, there are hearts 
not yet closed against compassion for human woes, that can pour 
out their indignant feelings at the oppression of a people endeared 
to us by every ancient recollection, and every modern tie. Sir, 
attempts have been made to alarm the committee, by the dangers 
to our commerce in the Mediterranean ; and a wretched invoice 
of figs and opium has been spread before us to repress our sensi- 
bilities and to eradicate our humanity. Ah! sir, "what shall it 
profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul," 
or what shall it avail a nation to save the Avhole of a miserable 
trade, and lose its liberties ? 

On the subject of the other independent American States, 
hitherto it has not been necessary to depart from the rule of our 
foreign relations, observed in regard to Europe. Whether it will 
become us to do so or not, will be considered when we take up 
another resolution, lying on the table. But we may not only 
adopt this measure ; we may go further ; we may recognize the 
government in the Morea, if actually independent, and it will be 
neither Avar, nor cause of war, nor anv violation of our neuti'ality. 
Beside, sir, what is Greece to the allies ? A part of the domin- 
ions of any of them ? By no means. Suppose the people in 
one of the Philippine isles, or any other spot still more insulated 
and remote, in Asia or Africa, were to resist their former rulers, 
and set up and establish a new government, are we not to recog- 
nize them, in dread of the holy allies ? If they are going to 
interfere, from the danger of the contagion of the example, here 
is the spot, our own favored land, where they must strike. This 
government, you, Mr. Chairman, and the body over which you 
preside, are the living and cutting reproach to allied despotism. 
If we are to oftend them, it is not by passing this resolution. 
We are daily and hourly giving them cause of war. It is here, 
and in our free institutions, that they will assail us. They will 
attack us because vou sit bLMicalh that canopy, and we are freely 



178 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. « 

debating and deliberating upon tbe great interests of freemen, 
and dispensing the blessings of free government. They will 
strike, because Ave pass one of those bills on your table. The 
passage of the least of them, by our free authority, is more gall- 
ino- to despotic powers, than would be the adoption of this so 
much dreaded resolution. Pass it, and what do you do ? You 
exercise an indisputable attribute of sovereignty, for which you 
are responsible to none of them. You do the same Avhen you 
perform any other legislative function ; no less. If the allies 
object to this measure, let them forbid us to take a vote in this 
House ; let them strip us of every attribute of independent gov- 
ernment ; let them disperse us. 

Will gentlemen attempt to maintain that, on the principles of 
the law of nations, those allies would have cause of war ? If 
there be any principle which has been settled for ages, any which 
is founded in the very nature of things, it is that every indepen- 
dent State has the clear right to judge of the fact of the existence 
of other sovereign powers. I admit that there may be a state of 
inchoate initiative sovereignty, in which a new government, just 
struggling into being, can not be said yet perfectly to exist. But 
the premature recognition of such new government can give 
offense justly to no other than its ancient sovereign. The rig"ht 
of recognition comprehends the right, to be informed ; and the 
means of information must, of necessity, depend upon the sound 
discretion of the party seeking it. You may send out a commis- 
sion of inquiiy, and charge it with a provident attention to your 
own people and your own interests. Such will be the character 
of the proposed agency. It will not necessarily follow, that any 
public functionary Avill be appointed by the President. You 
merely grant the means by which the Executive may act when 
/>c thinks proper. What does he tell you in his message ? Tha 
Greece is contending for her independence ; that all sympathize 
with her ; and that no power has declared against her. Pass 
this resolution, and what is the reply which it conveys to him? 
"You have sent us grateful intelligence; we feel warmly for 
Greece, and Ave gi'ant you money, that, Avhen you shall think it 
proper, avIkmi the interests of this nation sliall not be jeoparded, 



ON THE GKEEK REVOLUTION. 179 

you may depute a commissioner or public agent to Greece." 
Tlie Aviiole responsibility is tlien left where the Constitution 
puts it. A member in his place may make a speech or proposi- 
tion, the House may even pass a vote, in respect to our foreign 
affairs, which the President, with the whole field lying full before 
him, would not deem it expedient to effectuate. 

But, sir, it is not for Greece alone that I desire to see this 
measure adopted. It will give to her but little support, and that 
purely of a moral kind. It is principally for America, for the 
credit and character of our common country, for our own un- 
sullied name, that I hope to see it pass. Mr. Chairman, what 
appearance on the page of history would a record like this 
exhibit? — "In the month of January, in the year of our Lord 
and Saviour, 1824, Avhile all European Christendom beheld, with 
cold and unfeeling indifference, the unexampled wrongs and 
inexpressible misery of Christian Greece, a proposition was made 
in the Cono-ress of the United Slates, almost the sole, the last, 
the greatest depository of human hope and human freedom, the 
representatives of a galla;it nation, containing a million of free- 
men ready to fly to arms, while the people of that nation were 
spontaneously expressing its deep-toned feeling, and the whole 
continent, by one simultaneous emotion, was rising, and solemnly 
and anxiously supplicating and invoking high heaven to spare 
and succor Greece, and to invigorate her arms in her glorious 
cause, while temples and Senate Houses were alike resounding 
wiili one burst of generous and holy sympathy ; in the year of 
our Lord and Saviour, that Saviour of Greece and of us ; a pro- 
position was offered in the American Congress to send a mes- 
senger to Greece, to inquire into her state and condition, with a 
kind expression of our good wishes and our sympathies — and it 
was rejected !" Go home, if you can ; go home, if you dare, to 
your constituents, and tell them that you voted it down ; meet, 
if you can, the appalling countenances of those who sent you 
here, and tell them that you shrank from the declaration of your 
own sentiments; that you can not tell how, but that some 
unknown dread, some indescribable apprehension, some inde- 
finable dan(>-er, drove you from your purpose ; that the spectres 



180 SPEECHES OF HENEY CLAY. 

of cimeters, and crowns, and crescents, gleamed before you and 
alarmed you ; and that you suppressed all the noble feelings 
prompted by religion, by liberty, by national independence, and 
by humanity. I can not bring myself to believe that such will 
be the feeling of a majority of the committee. But, for myself, 
though every friend of the cause should desert it, and I be left 
to stand alone with the gentleman from Massachusetts, I will 
give to his resolution the poor sanction of my unqualified appro- 
bation. 



ON AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 

IN THE HOUSE OF BEPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 30 AND 31, 1834. 



In the following speech, delivered in the House of Representatives, 
March .30Ui and 31st, 1824, the reader will find one of Mr. Clay's ablest 
efforts in behalf of the American Protective System. 



The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Barbour) has embraced 
the occasion produced by the proposition of the gentleman from 
Tennessee to strike out the minimum price in the bill on cotton 
fabrics, to express his sentiments at large on the policy of the 
pending measure ; and it is scarcely necessary for me to say that 
he has evinced his usual good temper, ability, and decorum. 
The parts of the bill are so intermingled and interwoven together, 
that there can be no doubt of the fitness of this occasion to 
exhibit its merits or its defects. It is my intention, with the 
permission of the committee, to avail myself also of this opportu- 
nity, to present to its consideration those general views, as they 
appear to me, of the true policy of this country, which impe- 
riously demand the passage of this bill. I am deeply sensible, 
Mr. Chairman, of the high responsibility of my present situation. 
But that responsibility inspires me with no other apprehension 
than that I sliall be unable to fulfill my duty with no other soli- 
citude than that I may, at least, in some small degree, contribute 
to recall my country from the pursuit of a fatal policy, which 
appears to me inevitably to lead to its impoverishment and ruin. 
I do feel most awfully this responsibility. And, if it were allow- 
able for us, at the present day, to imitate ancient examples, I 
would invoke the aid of the Most ll\'j,h. I would anxii>us'.v and 



( IRI ) 



182 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

fervently implore His divine assistance ; that He would be g-ra- 
ciously pleased to shower on my country His richest blessings ; 
and that He would sustain, on this interesting occasion, the 
humble individual who stands before Him, and lend him the 
power, moral and physical, to perform the solemn duties which 
now belong to his public station. 

Two classes of politicians divide the people of the United 
States. According to the system of one, the produce of foreign 
industry should be subjected to no other impost than such as 
may be necessary to provide a public revenue ; and the produce of 
American industry should be left to sustain itself, if it can, with 
no other than that incidental protection, in its competition, at home 
as well as abroad, with rival foreign articles. According to the 
system of the other class, while they agree that the imposts 
should be mainly, and may under any modification be safely, 
relied on as a fit and convenient source of public revenue, they 
would so adjust and arrange the duties on foi-eign fabrics as to 
afford a gradual but adequate protection to American industry, 
and lessen our dependence on foreign nations, by securing a cer- 
tain and ultimately a cheaper and better supply of our own wants 
from our own abundant resources. Both classes are equally 
sincere in their respective opinions, equally honest, equally 
patriotic, and desirous of advancing the prosperity of the country. 
In the discussion and consideration of these opposite opinions, 
for the purpose of ascertaining which has the support of truth 
and reason, we should, therefore, exercise every indulgence, and 
the greatest spirit of mutual moderation and forbeaiance. And, 
in our deliberations on this great question, we should look fear- 
lessly and truly at the actual condition of the country, retrace 
tlie causes which have brought us into it, and snatch, if possi- 
ble, a view of the future. We should, above all, consult expe- 
rience — the experience of other nations, as well as our own — as 
our truest and most unerring guide. 

In casting our eyes around us, the most prominent circum- 
stance which fixes our attention, and challenges our deepest 
regret, is the general distress which pervades the whole country. 
It is forced iip(jn us by numerous facts of the most incontestable 



ON AMERICAN INDL'STET. 183 

character. It is indicated by the diminished exports of native 
produce ; by the depressed and reduced state of our foreign 
navigation ; by our diminished commerce ; by successive un- 
thrashed crops of grain, perishing in our barns and barn-yards 
for the want of a market; by the alarming diminution of the cir- 
culating medium ; by the numerous bankruptcies, not limited to 
the trading classes, but extending to all orders of society ; by a 
universal complaint of the want of employment, and a conse- 
quent reduction of the wages of labor ; by the ravenous pursuit 
after public situations, not for the sake of their honors and the 
performance of their public duties, but as a means of private 
subsistence ; by the reluctant resort to the perilous use of paper 
money ; by the intervention of legislation in the delicate relation 
between debtor and creditor ; and, above all, by the low and 
depressed state of the value of almost every description of the 
whole mass of the property of the nation, which has, on an 
average, sunk not less than about fifty per centum within a few 
years. This distress pervades every part of the Union, every 
class of society; all feel it, though it maybe felt, at different 
places, in different degrees. It is like the fitmosphere which 
surrounds us — all must inhale it, and none can escape it. In 
some places it has burst upon our people, without a single miti- 
gating circumstance to temper its severity. In others, more 
fortunate, slight alleviations have been experienced in the ex- 
penditure of the public revenue, and in other favoring causes. 
A few years ago, the planting interest consoled itself with its 
happy exemptions, but it has now reached this interest also, 
which experiences, though with less severity, the general suf- 
fering. It is most painful to me to attempt to sketch or to dwell 
on the u'loom of this picture. But I have exati'o-erated nothincj. 
Perfect fidelity to the original would have authorized me to have 
thrown on deeper and darker hues. And it is the duty of the 
statesman, no less than that of the physician, to survey, wiih a 
penetraiing, steady, and undismayed eye, the actual condition 
of the subject on which he would operate ; to probe to the bottom 
the diseases of the body poliiic, if he would apply efficacious 
remedies. We have not, thank God, suffered in anv gi-eat 



o 



184 SPEECHES OF HEWRT ULAT. 

deo-ree for food. But distress, resulting from the absence of a 
supply of the mere physical wants of our nature, is not the only 
nor perhaps the keenest distress, to which we may be exposed. 
Moral and pecuniary suffering is, if possible, more poignant. It 
plunges its victim into hopeless despair. It poisons, it paralyzes, 
the sprino- and source of all useful exertion. Its unsparing 
action is collateral as well as direct. It falls with inexorable 
force at the same time upon the wretched family of embarrass- 
ment and insolvency, and upon its head. They are a faithful 
mirror, reflecting back upon him, at once, his own frightful 
image, and that, no less appalling, of the dearest objects of his 
affection. What is the cause of this wide-spreading distress, 
of this deep depression, which we behold stamped on the public 
countenance ? We are the same people. We have the same 
country. We can not arraign the bounty of Providence. The 
showers still fall in the same grateful abundance. The sun still 
casts his genial and vivifying influence upon the land ; and the 
land, fertile and diversified in its soils as ever, yields to the 
industrious cultivator, in boundless profusion, its accixstomed 
fruits, its richest treasures. Our vigor is unimpaired. Our 
industry has not relaxed. If ever the accusation of wasteful ex- 
travagance could be made against our people, it can not now be 
justly preferred. They, on the contrary, for the few last years, 
at least, have been practicing the most rigid economy. The 
causes, then, of our present affliction, whatever they may be, 
are human causes, and human causes not chargeable upon the 
people, in their private and individual relations. 

What, again I would ask, is the cause of the unhappy condi- 
tion of our country, which I have faintly depicted ? It is to be 
found in the fact that, during almost the whole existence of this 
Government, we have shaped our industry, our navigation, and 
our commerce, in reference to an extraordinary war in Europe, 
and to foreign markets, which no longer exist ; in the fact, that 
we have depended too much upon foreign sources of supply, and 
excited too little the native ; in the fact that, while we have cul- 
tivated, with assiduous care, our foreign resources, we have 
suffered those ai liome to wither, in a state of neglect and aban- 



ON AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 185 

donment. The consequence of the termination of the war of 
Europe has been, the resumption of European commerce, Eu- 
ropean navigation, and the extension of European agriculture 
and European industry, in all its branches. Europe, therefore, 
has no longer occasion, to any thing like the same extent as that 
she had during her wars, for American commerce, American 
navigation, the produce of American industry. Europe, in 
commotion, and convulsed throughout all her members, is to 
America no longer the same Europe as she is now, tranquil, and 
watching with the most vigilant attention all her own peculiar 
interests, without regard to the opeiation of her policy upon us. 
The eftect of this altered state of Europe upon us has been, to 
circumscribe the employment of our marine, and greatly to 
reduce the value of the produce of our territorial labor. The 
further effect of this twofold reduction has been, to decrease the 
value of all property, whether on the land or on the ocean, and 
which I suppose to be about fifty per centum. And the still 
further effect has been, to diminish the amount of our circulating 
medium, in a proportion not less, by its transmission abroad, or 
its withdrawal by the banking institutions, from a necessity which 
they could not control. The quantity of money, in whatever 
form it may be, which a nation wants, is in proportion to the 
total mass of its wealth, and to the activity of that wealth. A 
nation that has but little wealth, has .but a limited Avant of money. 
In stating the fact, therefore, that the total wealth of the country 
has diminished, within a few years, in a ratio of about fifty per 
centum, we shall, at once, fully comprehend the inevitable reduc- 
tion which must have ensued in the total quantity of the circu- 
lating medium of the country. A nation is most prosperous 
when there is a gradual and untempting addition to the aggre- 
gate of its circulating medium. It is in a condition the most 
adverse, when there is a rapid diminution in the quantity of 
the circulating medium, and a consequent depression in the 
value of property. In the former case, the Avealth of individuals 
insensibly increases, and income keeps ahead of expenditure. 
But in the latter instance, debts have been contracted, eno-ao-e- 
ments made, and habits of expense established, in reference to 
16 



186 SPEECHK8 OF HENRY CLAY. 

the existing- state of wealth and of its representative. When 
these come to be greatly reduced, individuals find their debts 
still existing, their engagements unexecuted, and their habits 
inveterate. They see themselves in the possession of the same 
property, on which, in good faith, they had bound themselves. 
But that property, without their fault, possesses no longer the 
game value ; and hence discontent, impoverishment, and ruin 
arise. Let us suppose, Mr. Chairman, that Europe was again 
the theater of such a general war as recently raged throughout 
all her dominions,— such a state of the war as existed in her 
greatest exertions and in our greatest prosperity ; instantly there 
would arise a greedy demand for the surplus produce of our 
industry, for our commerce, for our navigation. The languor 
which now prevails in our cities, and in our seaports, would give 
way to an animated activity. Our roads and rivers would be 
crowded with the produce of the interior. Everywhere we 
should witness excited industry. The precious metals would 
reflow from abroad upon us. Banks, which have maintained 
their credit, would revive their business ; and new banks would 
be established to take the place of those which have sunk beneath 
the general pressure. For it is a mistake to suppose that they 
have produced our present adversity ; they may have somewhat 
aggravated it, but they were the effect and the evidence of our 
prosperity. Prices would again get up ; the former value of 
property would be restored. And those embarrassed persons 
who have not been already overwhelmed by the times, would 
suddenly find, in the augmented value of their property, and 
the renewal of their business, ample means to extricate them- 
selves from all their difficulties. The greatest want of civilized 
society is, a market for the sale and exchange of the surplus of 
the produce of the labor of its members. This market may 
exist at home or abroad, or both ; but it must exist somewhere, 
if society prospers ; and, wherever it does exist, it should be 
competent to the absorption of the entire surplus of production. 
It is most desirable that there should be both a home and a 
foreign market. But, with respect to their I'elative superiority, 
I can not entertain a doubt. The home market is first in order, 



ON AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 187 

and paramount in importance. The object of the bill under con- 
sideralion, is, to create this home market, and to lay the founda- 
tions of a genuine American policy. It is opposed ; and it is 
incumbent upon the partisans of the foreign policy (terms which 
I shall use without any invidious intent), to demonstrate that the 
f<)reign market is an adequate vent for the surplus produce of 
our labor. But is it so? First, foreign nations can not, if they 
would, tiike our surplus produce. If the source of supply, no 
matter of what, increases in a greater ratio than the demand for 
that supply, a glut of the market is inevitable, even if we sup- 
pose both to remain perfectly unobstructed. The duplication of 
our population takes place in terms of about twenty-hve years. 
The term will be more and more extended as our numbers mul- 
tiply. But it will be a sufficient approximation to assume this 
ratio for the present. We increase, therefore, in population, at 
the rate of about four per centum per annum. Supposing the 
increase of our production to be in the same ratio, we should, 
every succeeding year, have of surplus produce, four per centum 
more than that of the preceding year, without taking into the 
account the differences of seasons which neutralize each other. 
If, thei-efore, we are to rely upon the foreign market exclusively, 
foreign consumption ought to be shown to be increasing in the 
same ratio of four per centum per annum, if it be an adequate 
vent for our surplus produce. But, as I have supposed the 
measure of our increasing production to be furnished by (hat of 
our increasing population, so the measure of their power of 
consumption must be determined by that of the increase of 
their population. Now, the total foreign population, who con- 
sume our surplus produce, upon an average, do not double 
their age-reijate number in a shorter term than that of about 
one hundred years. Our powers of production increase then, 
in a ratio four times greater than their powers of consumption. 
And hence their utter inability to receive from us our surplus 
produce. 

The policy of all Europe is adverse to the reception of our 
agricultural produce, so far as it comes into collision with its 
own ; and under that limitation we are absolutely forbid to enter 



188 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

their ports, except under circumstances which deprive them of 
all value as a steady market. Tlie policy of all Europe rejects 
those great staples of our country, which consist of objects of 
human subsistence. The policy of all Europe refuses to receive 
from us any thing but those raw materials of smaller value, essen- 
tial to their manufactures, to which they can give a higher value, 
with the exception of tobacco and rice, which they can not produce. 
Even Great Britain, to which we are its best customer, and from 
which we receive nearly one-half in value of our whole imports, 
will not take from us articles of subsistence produced in our 
country cheaper than can be produced in Great Britain. In 
adopting this exclusive policy, the States of Europe do not 
inquire what is best for us, but what suits themselves respec- 
tively ; they do not take jurisdiction of the question of our inter- 
ests, but limit the object of their legislation to that of the con- 
servation of their own peculiar interests, leaving us free to prose- 
cute ours as we please. They do not guide themselves by that 
romantic philanthropy, which we see displayed here, and which 
invokes us to continue to purchase the produce of foreign indus- 
try, without regard to the state or prosperity of our ovrn, that 
foreigners may be pleased to purchase the few remaining articles 
of ours, which their restricted policy has not yet absolutely ex- 
cluded from their consumption. What sort of a figure would a 
member of the British Parliament have made, what sort of a 
reception would his opposition have obtained, if he had remon- 
strated against the passage of the corn-law, by which British 
consumption is limited to the bread-stuffs of British production, 
to the entire exclusion of American, and stated, that America 
could not and would not buy British manufactures, if Britain 
did not buy American flour ? 

Both the inability and the policy of foreign powers, then, forbid 
us to rely upon the foreign market, as being an adequate vent 
for the surplus produce of American labor. 

Oui' agricultural, is our greatest interest. It ought ever to be 
predominant. All others should bend to it. And, in consider- 
ing what is for its advantage, we should contemplate it in all its 
varieties, of planting, farming, and grazing. Can we do nothing 



ON AMKRICAN INDUSTRY. 189 

to invigorate it ; nothing to correct the errors of the past, and to 
brighten the still more unpromising prospects whicli lie before 
us ? We have seen, I think, the causes of the distresses of the 
country. We have seen, that an exclusive dependenc;; upon the 
foreign market must lead to still severer distress, to impoverish- 
ment, to ruin. We must then change somewhat our course. 
We must give a new direction to some portion of our industry. 
We must speedily adopt a genuine American policy. Still cher- 
ishing the foreign market, let us create also a home market, to 
give further scope to tlie consumption of the produce o-f Amer- 
ican industry. Let us counteract the policy of foreigners, and 
withdraw the support which we now give to their industry, and 
stimulate that of our own country. It should be a prominent 
object with wise legislators, to multiply the vocations and extend 
the business of society, as far as it can be done, by the protec- 
tion of our interests at home, against the injurious effects of 
foreign legislation. Suppose we were a nation of fishermen, or 
of skippers, to the exclusion of every other occupation, and the 
Legislature had the po^ver to introduce the pursuits of agricul- 
ture and manufactures, would not our happiness be promoted by 
an exertion of its authority? All the existing employments of 
society — the learned professions — commerce — agriculture — are 
now overflowing. We stand in each other's way. Hence the 
want of employment. Hence the eager pursuit after public 
stations, which I have before glanced at. I have been again 
and again shocked, during this session, by instances of solicita- 
tion for places, before the vacancies existed. The pulse of 
incumbents who happen to be taken ill, is not marked with 
more anxiety by the attending physicians, than by those Avho 
desire to succeed them, though with very opposite feelings. Our 
old friend, the faithful sentinel, who has stood so long at our 
door, and the gallantry of whose patriotism deserves to be 
noticed, because it was displayed when that virtue was most 
rare and most wanted, on a memorable occasion in this unfortu- 
nate city, became indisposed some weeks ago. The first intelli- 
gence which I had of his dangerous illness, was by an applica- 
t'on for his unvaeated place. I hastened lo assure mvself of the 



190 SPKECHKS iJV IIKNRY CLAY. 

extent of his danger, and was happy to find that the eagernese 
of succession outstripped the progress of disease. By creating 
a new and extensive business, then, we should not only give em- 
ployment to those who want it, and augment the sum of national 
wealth, by all that this new business would create, but we should 
meliorate the condition of those who are now engaged in existing 
employments. In Europe, particularly in Great Britain, their 
large standing armies, large navies, large even on their peace 
arrangement, their established church, aftbrd to their population 
employments which, in that respect, the happier constitution of 
our government does not tolerate but in a very limited degree. 
The peace establishments of our army and our navy, are ex- 
tremely small, and I hope ever will be. We have no established 
church, and I trust never shall have. In proportion as the 
enterprise of our citizens in public employments is circum- 
scribed, should we excite and invigorate it in private pursuits. 

The creation of a home market is not only necessary to pro- 
cure for our agriculture a just reward of its labors, but it is 
indispensable to obtain a supply of our necessary wants. If we 
can not sell, we can not buy. That portion of our population 
(and we have seen that it is not less than four-fifths), which 
makes comparatively nothing that foreigners will buy, has 
nothing to make purchases with from foreigners. It is in vain 
that we are told of the amount of our exports supplied by the 
planting interest. They may enable the planting interest to sup- 
ply all its wants : but they bring no ability to the interests not 
planting ; unless, which can not be pretended, the planting inter- 
est was an adequate vent for the surplus produce of the labor of 
all other interests. It is in vain to tantalize us with the greater 
cheapness of foreign fabrics. There must be an ability to pur- 
chase, if an article be obtained, whatever may be the price, high' 
or low, at which it is sold. And a cheap article is as much 
beyond the grasp of him who has no means to buy, as a high 
one. Even if it were true that the American manufactuier 
would supply consumption at dearer rates, it is better to have his 
fabrics than the unallainable foreio-ii fabrics ; because it is better 
to be ill suppli<^d ihaii imt supplied at all. A coarse coat, which 



ON AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 191 

will communicate warmth and cover nakedness, is better than no 
coat. The superiority of the home market results, first, from its 
steadiness and comparative certainty at all times ; secondly, from 
the creation of reciprocal interest ; thirdly, from its greater 
security ; and, lastly, from an ultimate and not distant augmenta- 
tion of consumption (and consequently of comfort), from in- 
creased quantity and reduced prices. But this home market, 
highly desirable as it is, can only be created and cherished by 
the IROTECTION of our own legislation against the inevitable pros- 
tration of our industry, which must ensue from the action of 
FOREIGN policy and legislation. The effect and the value of this 
domestic care of our own interests will be obvious from a few 
facts and considerations. Let us suppose that half a million of 
persons are now employed abroad in fabricating, for our con- 
sumption, those articles, of which, by the operation of this bill, 
a supply is intended to be provided within ourselves. That half 
a million of persons are, in effect, subsisted by us ; but their 
actual means of subsistence are drawn from foreign agriculture. 
If we could transport them to this country, and incorporate them 
in the mass of our own population, there would instantly arise a 
demand for an amount of provisions equal to that which would 
be requisite for their subsistence throughout the whole year. 
That demand, in the article of flour alone, would not be less than 
the quantity of about nine hundred thousand barrels, beside a 
proportionate quantity of beef, and pork, and other articles of 
subsistence. But nine hundred thousand barrels of flour ex- 
ceeded the entire quantity exported last year, by nearly one 
hundred and fifty thousand barrels. What activity would not 
this give, what cheerfulness would it net communicate, to our 
now dispirited farming interest! But if, instead of these five 
hundred thousand artisans emigrating from abroad, we give by 
this bill employment to an equal number of our own citizens, 
now engaged in unprofitable agriculture, or idle, from the want 
of business, the beneficial eff"ect upon the productions of our 
farming labor would be nearly doubled. The quantity would be 
diminished by a subtraction of the produce from the labor of all 
those who should be diverted from its pursuits to manufacturing 



192 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

industry, and tlie value of the residue would be enhanced, both 
by ihat diminution and the creation of the home market, to the 
extent supposed. And the honorable gentleman from Virginia 
may express any apprehensions which he entertains, that the 
plow will be abandoned, and our fields remain unsown. For, 
under all the modifications of social industry, if you will secure 
to it a just reward, the greater attractions of agriculture will 
give to it that proud superiority which it has always maintained. 
But, according to the opponents of the domestic policy, the 
proposed system will force capital and labor into new and reluct- 
ant employments ; we are not prepared, in consequence of the 
hio-h price of wages, for the successful establishment of manu- 
factui'es, and we must fail in the experiment. We have seen, 
that the existing occupations of our society, those of agriculture, 
commerce, navigation, and the learned professions, are over- 
flowing with competitors, and that the want of employment is 
eevei'ely felt. Now what does this bill propose ? To open a 
new and extensive field of business, in which all that choose 
may enter. There is no compulsion upon any one to engage 
in it. An option only is given to industry, to continue in the 
present unprofitable pursuits, or to embark in a new and promis- 
ing one. The effect will be, to lessen the competition in the old 
branches of business, and to multiply our resources for increas- 
ing our comforts, and augmenting the national wealth. The 
alleged fact of the high price of wages is not admitted. The 
truth is, that no class of society suflfers more, in the present 
staii'nation of business, than the laborino- class. That is a neces- 
sary effect of the depression of agriculture, the principal business 
of the community. The wages of able-bodied men vary from 
five to eight dollars per month, and such has been the want of 
employment, in some parts of the Union, that instances have not 
been unfrequent, of men working merely for the means of pres- 
ent subsistence. If the wao-es for labor here and in England are 
compared, they will be found not to be essentially different. I 
agree with the honoi'able gentleman from Virginia, that high 
wages are a proof of national prosperity ; we differ only in the 
means by wliich ihat desirable end shall be attained. But, if 



ON AMERICAN INDCSTKT. 193 

the fact were true, that the wages of labor are high, I deny the 
correctness of the argument founded upon it. The argument 
assumes, that natural labor is the principal element in the busi- 
ness of manufacture. That was the ancient theory. But the 
valuable inventions and vast improvements in machinery, which 
have been made within a few past years, have produced a new 
era in the arts. The eft'ect of this change, in the powers of pro- 
duction, may be estimated, from what I have already stated in 
relation to England, and to the triumphs of European artificial 
labor over tlie natural labor of Asia. In considering the fitness 
of a nation for the establishment of manufactures, we must no 
longer limit our views to the state of its population, and the price 
of wages. All circumstances must be regarded, of which that 
is, perhaps, the least important. Capital, ingenuity in the con- 
struction and adroitness in the use of machinery, and the posses- 
sion of the raw materials, are those which deserve the greatest 
consideration. All these circumstances (except that of capital, 
of which there is no deficiency), exist in our country in an 
eminent degree, and more than counterbalance the disadvantage, 
if it really existed, of the lower wages of labor in Great Britain. 
The dependence upon foreign nations for the raw material of any 
great manufacture, has been ever considered as a discouraging 
fact. The state of our population is peculiarly favorable to the 
most extensive introduction of machinery. We have no preju- 
dices to combat, no persons to drive out of employment. The 
pamphlet, to which we have had occasion so often to refer, in 
enximerating the causes which have broucfht in Eno-land their 
manufactures to such a state of perfection, and which now enable 
them, in the opinion of the writer, to defy all competition, does 
not specify, as one of them, low wages. It assigns three, — 
first, capital ; secondly, extent and costliness of machinery ; and 
thirdly, steady and persevering industry. Notwithstanding the 
concurrence of so many favorable causes, in our country, for the 
introduction of the arts, we are earnestly dissuaded from making 
the experiment, and our ultimate failure is confidently predicted. 
Why should we fail ? Nations, like men, fail in nothing which 
they boldlv attompt. when sustained by virtuous purpose and 
17 



194 SPEECHES OF HEKEY CLAY. 

firm resolution. I am not willing to admit this depreciation of 
American skill and enterprise. I am not willing to strike before 
an efltbrt is made. AH our past history exhorts us to proceed, 
and inspires us with animating hopes of success. Past predic- 
tions of our incapacity have failed, and present predictions will 
not be realized. At the commencement of this Government, we 
were told thai, the attempt would be idle to construct a marine 
adequate to the commerce of the country, or even to the business 
of its coastino- trade. The founders of our Government did not 
listen to these discoui-aging counsels; and, behold the fruits of 
their just <?omprehension of our resources. Our restrictive 
policy was denounced, and it was foretold that it would utterly 
disappoint all our expectations. But our restrictive policy has 
been eminently successful ; and the share which our navigation 
now enjoys in the trade with France, and with the British West 
India islands, attests its victory. What were not the dishearten- 
ing predictions of the opponents of the late war ? Defeat, dis- 
comfiture and disgrace, were to be the certain, but not the worst 
effect of it. Here, again, did prophecy prove false ; and the 
energies of our country, and the valor and the patriotism of out 
people, carried us gloriously through the war. We are now, 
and ever will be, essentially an agricultural people. Without a 
material change in the fixed habits of the country, the friends 
of this measure desire to draw to it, as a powerful auxiliary to 
its industry, the manufacturing arts. The difference between a 
nation with and without the arts may be conceived, by tJie dif- 
ference between a keelboat and a steamboat, combating the rapid 
torrent of the Mississippi. How slow does the former ascend, 
hugging the sinuosities of the shore, pushed on by her hardy 
and exposed crew, now throwing themselves in vigorous concert 
on their oars, and then seizing the pendant boughs of overhang- 
ing trees ; she seems hardly to move ; and her scanty cargo is 
scarcely worth the transportation ! With what ease is she not 
passed by the steamboat, laden with the riches of all quai'tei-s 
of the world, wilh a crev/ of gay, cheerful and protected pas- 
sengers, now dashing into the midst of the current, or gliding 
through the eddios near the shore! Nature herself seems to 



ON MIERICAN INDUSTRY. 195 

survey, with astonishment, the passing wonder, and, in silent 
submission, reluctantly to own the magnificent triumphs, in her 
own vast dominion, of Fulton's immortal genius. 

But it is said that, wherever there is a concurrence of favorable 
circumstances, manufactures will arise of themselves, without 
protection ; and (hat we should not disturb the natural progress 
of industry, but leave things to themselves. If all nations 
would modify their policy on this axiom, perhaps it would be 
better for the cornmon good of the whole. Even then, in conse- 
quence of natural advantages and a greater advance in civiliza- 
tion and in the arts, some nations would enjoy a state of much 
higher prosperity than others. But there is no universal legis- 
lation. Tiie globe is divided into different communities, each 
seeking to appropriate to itself all the advantages it can, wittiout 
reference to the prosperity of others. Whether this is right or 
not, it has always been, and ever will be the case. Perhaps the 
care of the interests of one people is sufficient for all the wisdom 
of one Legislature ; and that it is among nations as among indi- 
viduals, that the happiness of the whole is best secured by each 
attending to its own peculiar interests. The proposition to be 
maintained by our adversaries is, that manufactures, without 
protection, will in due time spring up in our country, and sus- 
tain themselves, in a competition with foreign fabrics, however 
advanced the arts, and whatever the degree of protection may be 
in foreign countries. Now I contend, that this proposition is 
refuted by all experience, ancient and modern, and in every 
country. If I am asked, why unprotected industry should not 
succeed in a struggle with protected industiy, I answer, the 
FACT has ever been so, and that is sufficient; I reply, that uni- 
form EXPERIENCE evinccs that it can not succeed in such an 
unequal contest, and that is sufficient. If we speculate on the 
causes of this universal truth, we may differ about them. Stift 
the indisputable fact remains. And we should be as unwise in 
not availing ourselves of the guide which it furnishes, as a man 
would be who should refuse to bask in tlie rays of the sun, 
because he could not, agree with Judge Woodward as to the 
nature of ilie suh>ia-i('e of ihni pliinet, to which we are indebted 



196 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

for heat and light. If I were to attempt to particularize the 
causes which prevent the success of the manufacturing arts, 
■without protection, I should say that they are, first, the obduracy 
of fixed habits. No nation, no individual, will easily change an 
established course of business, even if it be unprofitable ; and 
least of all is an agricultural people prone to innovation. With 
wliat reluctance do they not adopt improvements in the instru- 
ments of husbandry, or in modes of cultivation ! If the farmer 
makes a good crop, and sells if badly ; or makes a bad crop ; 
buoyed up by hope he perseveres, and trusts that a favorable 
change of the market, or of the seasons, will enable him, in the 
succeeding year, to repair the misfortunes of the past. Secondly, 
the uncertainty, fluctuation, and unsteadiness of the home market, 
when liable to an unrestricted influx of fabrics from all foreign 
nations ; and thirdly, the superior advance of skill, and amount 
of capital, which foreign nations have obtained, by the protection 
of their own industry. From the latter, or from other causes, 
the unprotected manufactures of a country are exposed to the 
danger of being crushed in their infancy, either by the design 
or from the necessities of foreio-n manufacturers. Gentlemen are 
incredulous as to the attempts of foreign merchants and manu- 
facturers to accomplish the destruction of ours. Why should 
they not make such attempts'? If the Scottish manufacturer, by 
sui-charging our market, in one year, with the article of cotton 
bagging, for example, should so reduce the price as to discourage 
and put down the home manufacture, he would secure to himself 
the monopoly of the supply. And now, having the exclusive 
possession of the market, perhaps for a long term of years, he 
might be more than indemnified for his first loss, in the subse- 
quent rise in the price of the article. What have we not seen 
under our own eyes ! The competition for the transportation of 
the mail, between this place and Baltimore, so excited, that to 
obtain it, an individual offered, at great loss, to carry it a whole 
year for one dollar ! His calculation, no doubt, was, that by 
driving his competitor oft' the road, and securing to himself the 
carriage of the mail, he would be afierward able to repair his 
original loss by new contracts with ihe df^parlment. But the 



ON AMERICAN INDUSTRV. 197 

necessities of foreign manufacturers, without imputing to them 
any sinister design, may oblige them to throw into our maikets 
the fabrics which have accumulated on their hands, in conse- 
quence of obstruction in the ordinary vents, or from over-calcu- 
laiion ; and the forced sales, at losing prices, may prostrate our 
esiablishments. From this view of the subject, it follows, thai, 
if we would place the industry of our country upon a solid anrl 
unmisiakable foundation, we must adopt the protecting policy, 
which has everywhere succeeded, and reject that which would 
abandon it, which has everywhere failed. 

The principle of the sysiem under consideration, lias the sanc- 
tion of some of the best and wisest men in all ages, in foreign 
countries as well as in our own. — of the Edwards, of Henry the 
Great, of Elizabeth, of the Colberts, abroad; of our Franklin, 
Jetierson, Madison, Hamilton, at home. But it comes recom- 
mended to us by a higher authority than any of these, illustrious 
as they unquestionably are, — by the master-spirit of the age, — 
that extraordinary man, who has thrown the Alexanders and the 
Caesars infinitely further behind him than they stood in advance 
of the most eminent of their predecessors, — that singular man, 
who, whether he was seated on his imperial throne, deciding the 
fate of nations, and allotting kingdoms to the members of his 
family, with the same composure, if not the same affection, as 
that with which a Virginia father divides his plantations among 
his children, or on the miserable rock of St. Helena, to which he 
was condemned by the cruelty and the injustice of his unworthy 
victors, is equally an object of the most intense admiration. He 
appears to have comprehended, with the rapidity of intuition, 
the true interests of a State, and to have been able, by the turn 
of a single expression, to develop the secret springs of the policy 
of cabinets. We find that Las Casas reports him to have said : 

"He opposed the principles of economists, which he said were 
correct in theory though erroneous in their application. The 
political constitution of different States, continued he, must ren- 
der these principles defective ; local circumstances continually 
call for deviations from their uniformity. Duties, he said, which 
were so severely condemned by poliiical economists, should n'^t, 



198 SPEECHES OF HEKKT CLAY. 

it is true, be an object to the Treasury ; they should be (lie 
g-uarantee and protection of a nation, and should correspond with 
the naiure and (he objects of its trade. Holland, which is desii- 
tute of productions and manufactures, and wliich was a trade 
only of transit and commission, should be free of all fetters 
and barriers. France, on the contrary, which is rich in eveiy 
sort of production and manufactures, should incessantly guaid 
against the importations of a rival, who might still continue 
superior to her, and also against the cupidity, egotism, and indif- 
ference of mere brokers. 

"I have not fallen into the error of modern systematizers," 
said the Emperor, " who imagine that all the wisdom of na- 
tions is centered in themselves. Experience is the true wisdom 
of nations. And what does all the reasoning of economists 
amount to? They incessantly extol the prosperity of England, 
and hold her up as our model ; but the Custom House sysiem 
is more burdensome and arbitrary in England than in any other 
country. They also condemn prohibitions ; yet it was England 
set the example of prohibitions ; and they are in fact necessary 
with regard to certain objects. Duties can not adequately sup- 
ply the place of pi'ohibicions ; there will always be found means 
to defeat the object of the legislator. In France, we are still veiy 
far behind on these delicate points, which are still unperceived 
or ill understood by the mass of society. Yet, what advance- 
ment have we not made ; what correctness of ideas has been 
introduced by my giadual classiiication of agriculture, indusiry, 
and trade ; objects so distinct in themselves, and which present 
BO great and positive a graduation 1 

"First. Agriculture ; the soul, the first basis, of the empire. 

"Second. Industry; the comfort and happiness of the popu- 
lation. 

"Third. Foreign trade; the superabundance, the proper ap- 
plication, of the sui])lus of agriculture and industry." 

I will trouble the committee with only one other quoialion, 
which I shall make from Lowe : and from hearino- which, the 
committee must share with me in the mortification which I felt 
on perusing it. That author says, "It is now above forty years 



OK AMKKICAN INDUSTRY. 199 

since the United States of America were definitely separated from 
us, and since, their situation has afforded a proof that the benefit 
of me-canlile intercourse may be retained, in all its extent, with- 
out the care of governing, or the expense of defending, these 
once reo-retted Tjrovinces." Is there not too much truth in this 
observation? By adhering to the foreign policy, which I have^ 
been discussing, do we not remain essentially British, in every 
thin"- but the form of our government? Are not our interests, 
our industry, our commerce, so modified as to swell British pride, 
and to increase British power? 

Mr. Cliairman, our confederacy comprehends, within its vast 
limits, great diversity of interests ; agricultural, planting, farm- 
ing, commercial, navigating, fishing, manufacturing. *No one 
of these interests is felt in the same degree, and cherished with 
the same solicitude, throughout all parts of the Union. Some 
of them are peculiar to particular sections of our common 
country. But all those great interests are confided to the pro- 
tection of one government — to the fate of one ship ; and a most 
gallant ship it is, with a noble crew. If we prosper, and are 
happy, protection must be extended to all ; it is due to all. It is 
the great principle on which obedience is demanded from all. If 
our essential interests can not find protection from our own Gov- 
ernment against the policy of foreign powers, where are they to 
get it ? We did not unite for sacrifice, but for preservation. The 
inquiry should be, in reference to the great interests of every sec- 
tion of the Union (I speak not of the minute subdivisions), what 
would be done for those interests if that section stood alone and 
separated frojn the residue of the republic ? If the promotion of 
those interests would not injuriously affect any other section, theii 
every thing should be done for them, which woirld be done if it 
formed a distinct o-overnment. If they come into absolute collision 
with the interests of another section, a reconciliation, if possi- 
ble, should be attempted, by mutual concession, so as to avoid a 
sacrifice of the prosperity of either to that of the other. In such 
a case, all should not be done for one which would be done, if it 
were separated and independent, but something ; and, in devising 
the measure, the sfood of e.T-h part and of the whole, should be 



200 SPEECHES OF HENBY CLAY. 

carefully consulted. This is the only mode by which we can 
preserve, in full vigor, the harmony of the whole Union. The 
South entertains one opinion, and imagines that a modification of 
the existing policy of the country, for the protection of American 
industry, involves the ruin of the South. The North, the East, 
the West, hold the opposite opinion, and feel and contemplate, in 
a lono-er adherence to the foreign policy, as it now exists, their 
utter destruction. Is it true, that the interests of these great 
sections of our country are irreconcilable with each other ? Are 
we reduced to the sad and aflflicting dilemma of determining 
•which shall fall a victim to the prosperity of the other? Hap- 
pily, I think, there is no such distressing alternative. If the 
North, the West, and the East, formed an independent State, 
unassociated with the South, can there be a doubt that the 
restrictive system would be carried to the point of prohibition 
of every foreign fabric of which they produce the raw material, 
and which they could manufacture ? Such would be their policy, 
if they stood alone ; but they are fortunately connected with the 
South, which believes its interests to require a free admission of 
foreio-n manufactures. Here then is a case of mutual concession, 
for fair compromise. The bill under consideration presents this 
compromise. It is a medium between the absolute exclusion 
and the unrestricted admission of the produce of foreign industry. 
It sacrifices the interest of neither section to that of the other ; 
neither, it is true, gets all that it wants, nor is subject to all that 
it fears. But it has been said that the South obtains nothing in 
this compromise. Does it lose any thing? is the first question. 
I have endeavored to prove that it does not, by showing that a 
mere transfer is effected in the source of the supply of iis con- 
sumption from Europe to America ; and that the loss, whatever 
it may be, of the sale of its great staple in Europe, is compen- 
sated by the new market created in America. But does the 
South really gain nothing in this compromise ? The consump- 
tion of the other sections, though somewhat restricted, is still 
left open by this bill, to foreign fabrics purchased by Southern 
staples. So far as its operation is beneficial to the South, and 
prf'judicial to (he industry of the other sections, and that is the 



ON AMKKICAN INDLSTKY. 201 

point of mutual concession. The South will also gain by the 
extended consumption of its great staple, produced by an in- 
creased capacity to consume it in consequence of the establish- 
ment of the home market. But the South can not exert its 
industry and enterprise in the business of manufaciures ! Why 
not? The difficulties, if not exaggerated, are artificial, and may, 
therefore, be surmounted. But can the other sections embark 
in the planting occupations of the South ? The obstructions 
which forbid them are natural, created by the immutable laws 
of God, and, therefore, unconquerable. 

Other and animating considerations invite us to adopt the 
policy of this system. Its importance, in connection with the 
general defense in time of war, can not fail to be dtily estimated. 
Need I recall to our painful recollectii-n the sufferings, for the 
want of an adequate supply of absolute necessaries, to which the 
defenders of their country's rights and our entire population, 
were subjected during the late war ? Or to remind the com- 
mittee of the i>-reat advantaoe of a steady and unfailiii"' source of 
supply, unaffected alike in war and in peace ? Its importance, 
in reference to the stability of our Union, that paramount and 
greatest of all our interests, can not fail warmly to recommend 
it, or at least to conciliate the forbearance of every patriot bosom. 
Now our people present the spectacle of a vast assemblage of 
jealous rivals, all eagerly rushing to the seaboard, jostling each 
other in their way, to hurry off to glutted foreign maikets the 
perishable produce of their labor. The tendency of that policy, 
in confoimity to which this bill is prepared, is to transform these 
competitors into friends and mutual customers ; and, by the 
reciprocal exchanges of their respective productions, to place the 
confederacy upon the most solid of all foundations, the basis of 
common interest. And is not Government called upon, by every 
stimulating motive, to adapt its policy to the actual condition 
and extended growth of our great republic. At the commence- 
ment of our consiitution, almost the whole populadon of the 
Unilpd States was confined between the Alleghany mountains and 
the Atlantic ocean. Since that epoch, the western part of New- 
York, of Pennsylvania, of Virginia, all the western States and 



202 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

Territories, have been principally peopled. Prior to that period 
we had scarcely any intei'ior. An interior lias sprung up, as it 
were, by enchaniment, and along with k new interests and new 
relations, requiring the parental protection of Government. Our 
policy should be modified accordingly, so as to comprehend all, 
and sacrifice none. And are we not encouraged by the success 
of past experience, in respect to the only article which has been 
adequately protected ? Already have the predictions of the 
friends of the American system, in even a shorter time than 
their most sanguine hopes could have anticipated, been com- 
pletely realized in regard to that article ; and consumption is 
now better and more cheaply supplied with coarse cottons, than 
it was under the prevalence of the foreign system. 

Even if the benefits of the policy were limited to certain sec- 
tions of our country, would it not be satisfactory to behold 
American industry, Avherever situated, active, animated, and 
thrifiy, rather than persevere in a course which renders us sub- 
servient to foreign industry? But these benefits are twofold, 
direct and collateral, and, in the one shape or the other, they will 
diffuse them.selves throughout the Union. All parts of the Union 
will participate, more or less, in both. As to the direct benefit, 
it is probable that the North and the East will enjoy the largest 
share. But the West and the South will also participate in 
them. Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Richmond, will divide with 
the northern capitals the business of manufacturing. The latter 
city unites more advantages for ils successful prosecution than 
any place I know ; Zanesville, in Ohio, only excepted. And 
where the direct benefit does not accrue, that will be enjoyed 
of supplying the raw material and provisions for the consump- 
tion of ariisans. Is it not most desirable to put at rest and pre- 
vent the annual recurrence of this unpleasant subject, so well 
fitted, by the various interests to which it appeals, to excite 
irritation and to produce discontent? Can that be effected by 
its rejection ? Behold the mass of petitions which lie on our 
table, earnestly and anxiously entreating the protecting interpo- 
siiion of Congress against the ruinous policy which Ave are pur- 
suing. Will these petitioners, comprehending .all orders of 



ON AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 203 

society, entire States and communities, public companies and 
private individuals, spontaneously assembling-, cease in their 
humble piayers by your lending a deaf ear ? Can you expect 
thai these petitioners and others, in countless numbers, that will, 
if you delay the passage of this bill, supplii-ate your mercy, 
should contemplate their substance gradually withdiawn to for- 
ei<j-n countries, their ruin slow, but certain and as inevitable as 
death itself, without one expiring effort ? You think the measure 
injurious to you ; we believe our preservation depends upon its 
adopiion. Our convictions, mutually honest, are equally strong. 
What is to be done? I invoke that saving spirit of mutual con- 
.".ession under which our blessed Constitution was formed, and 
under which alone it can be happily administered. I appeal to 
the South — to the high-minded, generous, and patriotic Souih — 
with which I have so often co-operated, in attempting to sustain 
the honor and to vindicate the rights of our country. Should it 
not offer, upon the altar of the public good, some saciifice of its 
peculiar opinions? Of what does it complain? A possible 
temporary enhancement in the objects of consumption. Of wliat 
do we complain ? A total incapacity, produced by the foreign 
policy, to purchase, at any price, necessary foreign objects of 
consumption. In such an alternative, irreonvenient only to it, 
ruinous to us, can we expect too much from southern mag- 
nanimiiv ? Tiie just and confident expectation of the passage 
of this bill has flooded the country with recent importations of 
foreign fabrics. If it should not pass, they will complete the 
work of destruction of our domestic industry. If it should pass, 
they will prevent any consideiable rise in the price of foreign 
commodities, until our own industry shall be able to su})ply 
competent substitutes. 

To the friends of the tariff I would, also anxiously appeal. 
Every arrangement of its provisions does not suit each of you ; 
you desire some further alterations; you would. make it perfect. 
You want what you will never get. Nothing human is perfect 
And 1 have seen, with great surprise, a piece signed by a mem- 
ber of Congress, published in the National Intelligencer, stating 
that this bill must be rejected, and a judicious tariff brought in 



204 SPEECHES OK llENitY CLAY. 

as its substitute. A Judicious iaviffl No momber of Congress 
could have signed that piece ; or, if he did, the public ought 
not to be deceived. If this bill do not pass, unquestionably no 
other can pass at this session, or probably during this Congress. 
And vrho will go home and say that he rejected all the benefits of 
this bill, because molasses has been subjected to the enormous 
additional duty of five cents per gallon? I call, therefore, upon 
the friends of the American policy, to yield somewhat of their 
own peculiar wishes, and not to reject the practicable in the idle 
pursuit after the unattainable. Let us imitate the illustrious 
example of the framers of the Constitution, and, always, remem- 
bering that whatever springs from man partakes of his imperfec- 
tions, depend upon experience to suggest, in future, the necessary 
amendments. 

We have had great difficulties to encounter. First, the splendid 
talents which are arrayed in this House against us. Second, we 
are opposed by the rich and powerful in the land. Third, the 
executive government, if any, affords us but a cold and equivo- 
cal support. Fourth, the importing and navigating interest, I 
verily believe, from misconception, are adverse to us. Fifth, 
the British factors and the British influence are inimical to our 
success. Sixth, long established habits and prejudices oppose us. 
Seventh, the reviewers and literary speculators, foreign and do- 
mestic. And, lastly, the leading presses of the country, includ- 
ing the influence of that which is established in this city, and 
sustained by the public purse. 

From some of these or other causes, the bill may be post- 
poned, thwarted, defeated. But the cause is the cause of the 
cotmtry, and it must and will prevail. It is founded in the 
interests and affections of the people. It is as native as the 
granite deeply imbosomed in our mountains. And, in conclu- 
sion, I would pray God, in his infinite mercy, to avert from our 
country the evils which are impending over it, and, by enlight- 
ening our councils, to conduct us into that path which leads to 
riches, to greatness, to glory. 



ADDUESS TO Li FAYETTE. 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 10, 1824. 



"In the year 1824, General La Fayette visited the United States, as the 
fuest of the nation, and was welcomed with the most gratifying testimonies 
of atfcclion and respect by the whole American people, in behalf of whose 
rights and liberty he had so callantly fought, and performed other im- 
portant services during the revolutionary war. After visiting various 
parts of the United States, he was received at the city of Wasliiugton, 
with distinguished honors, by the people and the public authorities, and 
on the tenth of December, 1824, he was introduced to the House of Repre- 
Bentatives, by a committee appointed for that purpose. The General, 
being conducted to the sofa placed for his reception, the Speaker (Mr. 
Clay; addressed him in the following words:" 



General : 

The House of Representatives of the United States, impelled 
alike by its own feelings, and by those of the whole American 
people, could not have assigned to me a more gratifying duty 
than that of presenting to you cordial congratulations upon (he 
occasion of your recent arrival in the United States, in compli- 
ance with the wishes of Congress, and to assure you of the very 
high satisfaction which your presence affords on this early theater 
of your glory and renown. Although but few of the members 
who compose this body shared with you in the war of our revo- 
lution, all have, from impartial history, or from faithful tradition, 
a knowledge of tlie perils, the sufferings, and the sacrifices, 
which you voluntarily encountered, and the signal services, in 
America and in Europe, which you performed for an infant, a 
disianl. and an alien people ; and all feel and own the very great 



( 2ns ) 



206 SPEECHES OF HEKRY CLAY. 

extent of the obligations under which you have placed our 
country. But the relations in which you have ever stood to the 
United States, interesting and important as they have been, do 
not constitute the only motive of the respect and admiraiion 
which the House of Representatives entertain for you. Your 
consistency of character, your uniform devotion to regulated 
liberty, in all the vicissitudes of a long and arduous life, also 
commands its admiraiion. During all the recent convulsions 
of Eui'ope, amid, as after the dispersion of, eveiy political storm, 
tlie people of the United Slates have beheld you, true to your 
old principles, firm and erect, cheering and animating with your 
well-known voice, the votaries of liberty, its faithful and fearless 
champion, ready to shed the last drop of that blood which here 
you so freely and nobly spilled, in the same holy cause. 

The vain wish has been sometimes indulged, that Providence 
would allow the patriot, after death, to return to his country, and 
to contemplate the intermediate cl.anges whi«h had taken place ; 
to view the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains leveled, 
the canals cut, the highwaj's constructed, the progress of the 
arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase of popula- 
tion. General, your present visit to the United Slates, is a real- 
izaiion of the consoling object of that wish. You are in the 
midst of posterity. Everywhere, you must have been struck 
with the great changes, physical and moral, which have occurred 
since you left us. Even this veiy city, bearing a venerated 
name, alike endeared to you and to us, has since emerged fiom 
the forest which then covered its site. In one respect you behold 
us unaltered, and this is in the sentiment of continued devotion 
to liberty, and of ardent affection and profound gratitude to your 
departed friend, the father of his country, and to you, and to 
youi' illustiious associates in the field and in the cabinet, for the 
muhiplied blessings which surround us, and for the very privi- 
lege of addressing you, which I now exercise. This seniiment, 
now fondly cherished by more than ten millions of people, will 
be transmitted, with unabated vigor, down the tide of time, 
through the countless millions who are destined to inhabit this 
continent, to the latest posterity. 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 

DELIVERED AT CINCINNATI, AUGUST 3, 1830. 



"There are few, if any, among the numerous addresses with which 
Mr Clay lias favored tlie country, on tJie policy of tiie Government, and 
the true interests of the people, which more richly deserve careful consid- 
eration, tluin the following speech, delivered at the mechanics' festival, 
in the Apollonian garden, on the third of August, 1830. It embraces 
almost every exciting toi>ic of the time, including the American system, 
re-charter of the United States Bank, and nullification. 

"The eighth toast — 'Our valued guest — It is his highest eulogium, 
that the name of Henry Cl.\y is inseparably associated with the best 
interests of the country, as their asserter and advocate.' " 



Mr. President and Fellow- Citizens : 

In rising to make the acknowledgments which are due from 
me, for the senlimeiit which lias been just drunk, and for the 
honors whicli have been sponiane<^usly rendered to me on my 
approach, and during my visit, to this city, I feel more than ever 
the incompetency of all language adequately to express the u-rate- 
ful feelings of my heart. Of these distinguished honors, crowned 
heads themselves might well be proud. Tliey indeed possess a 
value far surpassing that of any similar testimonies which couhi 
be oft'eied to the chief of an absolute government. Theie, they 
are, not unfiequenily, tendered by reluctant subjects, awed by a 
' sense of terror, or impelled by a spirit of servility. Here, in this 
land of equal laws and equal liberty, they are presented to a 
private fellow-citizen, possessing neither office nor power, nor 
enjoying any rights and privileges which are not common to 
every member of the community. Power could not buy, nor 
deter them. And, what confers an estimable value on iliem to 



208 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

me — what makes them alone worthy of you, or more acceptable 
to their objecL, is, that they are ofiered, not to the man, but to 
the public principles and public interests, which you are pleased 
to associate with his name. On this occasion, too, they emanate 
from one of those gieat productive classes which form the main 
pillars of public liberty, and public prospei'ity. I thank you, 
fellow-citizens, most cordially, for these endearing proofs of your 
friendly attachment. They have made an impression of gratitude 
on my heart, which can never be effaced, during the residue of 
my life. I avail myself of this last opportunity of being present 
at any large collectit>n of my fellow-citizens of Ohio, during my 
present visit, to express my respectful acknowledgments for the 
hospitality and kindness with which I have been everywhere 
received and entertained. 

Throughout my journey, undertaken solely for private pur- 
poses, there has been a constant effort on my side, to repress, 
and, on that of my fellow-citizens of Ohio to exhibit, public man- 
ifestations of their affection and confidence. It has been mai'ked 
by a succession of civil triumphs. I have been escorted from 
village to village, and have everywhere found myself surrounded 
by large concourses of my fellow-citizens, often of both sexes, 
greeting and welcoming me. Nor should I do justice to my 
feelings, if I confined the expression of my obligations to those 
only with whom I had the happiness to agree, on a late public 
event. They are equally due to the can'did and liberal of those ' 
from whom it was my misfortixne to differ on that occasion, for 
their exercise toward me of all (he rights of hospitality and 
neighborly courtesy. It is true, that in one or two of the towns 
through which I passed, I was informed, that attem.pts were 
made, by a few political zealots, to dissuade portions of my 
fellow-citizens from visiting and saluting me. These zealots 
seemed to apprehend, that an invading army was about to enter 
the town ; that it was necessary to sound the bells, to beat the 
drums, to point the cannon, and to make all needful preparations 
for a resolute assault, and a gallant defense. They were accord- 
ingly seen in the streets, and at public places, b^^ating up for 
recruits, and endeavoritii)- to drill th.pir men. But I believe there 



IHE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 209 

were only a few who were awed by tlieir threats, or seduced by 
their bouiUy, to enlist in such a cause. Tlie great body of those 
who thought differently from me, in the instance referred to, re- 
mained firm and immovable. They could not comprehend that 
it was wrong to extend to a stranger from a neighboring State, 
the civilities which belong to social life. They could not com- 
prehend that it was right to transform political differences into 
deadly animosities. Seeing that varieties in the mode of worship- 
ino- the creat Ruler of the universe did not disturb the harmony 
of private intercourse, they could not comprehend the propriety 
of extending to mortal man a sacrifice which is not offered to our 
immurial Father, of all the friendly and social feelings of our 
nature, because we could not all agree as to the particular exer- 
cise of the elective franchise. As independent and intelligent 
freemen, they would not consent to submit to an arrogant usurpa- 
tion which assumed the right to control their actions, and to 
regulate the feelings of their hearts, and they scorned with indig- 
nation, to yield obedience to the mandates of would-be dictators. 
To quiet the apprehensions of these zealots, I assure them, that 
I do not march at the head of any military force ; that I have 
neither horse, foot, nor dragoon, and that I travel with my friend 
Charles (a black boy, residing in my family, for whom I feel the 
same sort of attachment that I do for my own children), without 
sword, pistol or musket ! Another species of attempted embar- 
rassment has been practiced by an individual of this city. 
About an hour before I left my lodgings for this spot, he caused 
a packet to be left in my room by a little boy, who soon made 
his exit. Upon opening it, I looked at the signature, and that 
was enough for me. It contained a long list of interrogatories, 
which I was required publicly to answer. I read only one or 
two of them. There are some men whose contact is pollution. 
I can recognize no right in the person in question to catechise 
me. I can have no intercourse with one who is a disgrace to 
the gallant and generous nation from which he sprang. I can 
not stop to be thus interrogated by a man whose nomination to a 
paltry office, was rejected by nearly the unanimous vote of the 

Senate ; I must be excused if, when addressing my friends, the 
18 



210 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

mechanics of Cincinnati, I will not speak from his notes. On 
the renewal of the charter of the present Bank of the United 
States, which I believe formed the subject of one or two of these 
interrogatories, I will say a few words for your, not his sake. I 
will observe, in the first place, that I am not in favor of such a 
bank as was recommended in the message of the President of 
the United States, at the commencement of the last session of 
Oono-ress ; that, with the committee of the two Houses, I concur 
in thinkino' it would be an institution of a danoerous and alarm- 
ing chaiacter ; and that, fraught as it would be with the most 
corrupting tendencies, it might be made powerfully instrumental 
in overturning our liberties. As to the existing bank, I think it 
has been generally administered, and particularly of late years, 
with gr^at ability and integrity ; that it has fulfilled all the rea- 
sonable expectations of those who constituted it ; and, with the 
same committees, I think it has made an approximation toward 
the equalization of the currency, as great as is practicable. 
Whether J.he charter ought to be renewed or not, near six years 
hence, in my judgment, is a question of expediency to be decided 
by the then existing state of the country. It will be necessary 
at that time, to look carefully at the condition both of the bank 
and of the Union. To ascertain if the public debt shall, in the 
meantime, be paid oft", what eff"ect that will produce ? What 
will be our then financial condition ? what that of local banks, 
the state of our commerce, foreign and domestic, as well as the 
concerns of our currency generally? I am, therefore, not now 
prepared to say, whether the charter ought, or ought not, to be 
renewed on the expiration of its present term. The bank may 
become insolvent, and may hereafter forfeit all pretensions to a 
renewal. The question is premature. ■ I may not be alive to 
form any opinion upon it. It belongs to posterity, and if they 
would have the goodness to decide for us some of the perplexing 
and practical questions of the present day, we might be disposed 
to decide that remote question for them. As it is, it ought to be 
indefinitely postponed. 

Willi respect to the American system, which demands your 
un(livi(h'd a]>probation, and in regard to which you are pleased 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 211 

to estimate much too highly my service, its great object is to 
secure the independence of our country, to augment its weahh, 
and to diffuse the comforts of civilization throughout society. 
That object, it has been supposed, can be best accomplished by 
introducing, encouraging, and protecting the arts among us. It 
may be called a system of real reciprocity, under the operation 
of which one citizen or one part of the country, can exchange 
one description of the produce of labor, with another citizen or 
another pan of the country, for a different description of the pro- 
duce of labor. It is a system which develops, improves, and 
perfects the capabilities of our common country, and enables us 
to avail ourselves of all the resources with which Providence has 
blest us. To the laboring classes it is invaluable, since it in- 
creases and multiplies the demands for their industry, and gives 
them an option of employments. It adds power and strength to 
our Union, by new ties of interest, blending and connecting 
together all its parts, and creating an interest with each in the 
prosperity of the whole. It secures to our own country, whose 
skill and enterprise, properly fostered and sustained, can not be 
surpassed, those vast profits which are made in other countries 
by the operation of converting the raw material into manufac- 
tured articles. It naturalizes and creates wiihin the bosom of 
our country, all the arts; and, mixing the farmer, manufacturer, 
mechanic, artist, and those engaged in other vocations, together, 
admits of those mutual exchanges, so conducive to the pros- 
perity of all and every one, free from the perils of sea and 
war ; — all this it effects, while it nourishes and leaves a fair scope 
to foreign trade. Suppose we were a nation that clad ourselves, 
and made all the implements necessary to civilization, but did not 
produce our own bread, w^hich we brought from foreign countries, 
although our own was capable of producing it, under the influ- 
ence of suitable laws of protection, ought not such law? to be 
enacted ? The case supposed is not essentially different from the 
real state of things which led to the adoption of the American 
System. 

That system has had a wonderful success. It has more than 
realized all the hopes of its foundei-s. It has completely falsified 



212 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

all the predictions of its opponents. It has increased the wealth, 
and power, and population of the nation. It has diminished the 
price of articles of consumption, and has placed them within the 
reach of a far g-reater number of our people than could have 
found means to command them, if they had been manufactured 
abroad instead of at home. 

But it is useless to dwell on the argument in support of this 
beneficent system before this audience. It will be of more con- 
sequence here to examine some of the objections which are still 
uro-ed against it, and the means which are proposed to sub- 
vert it. These objections are now principally confined to its 
opei'ation upon the great staple of cotton wool ; and they are 
urged with most vehemence in a particular State. If the objec- 
tions are well founded, the system should be modified, as far 
as it can consistently with interest in other parts of the Union. 
If they are not well founded, it is to be hoped they will be 
finally abandoned. 

In approaching the subject, I have thought it of importance 
to inquire, what was the profit made upon capital employed in 
the culture of cotton, at its present reduced price. The result 
has been information, that it nets from seven to eighteen per 
cent, per annum, varying according to the advantage of situation, 
and the degree of skill, judgment and industry, applied to the 
production of the article. But the lowest rate of profit, in the 
scale, is more than the greatest amount which is made on capital 
employed in the farming portions of the Union. 

If the cotton planter have any just complaint against the ex- 
pediency of the American system, it must be founded on the 
fact, that he either sells less of his staple, or sells at lower pi'ices, 
or purchases for consumption, articles at dearer rates, or of worse 
qualities, in consequence of that system, than he would do, if it 
did not exist. If he would neither sell more of his staple, nor 
sell it at better prices, nor could purchase better or cheaper 
articles for consumption, provided the system did not exist, then 
ho has no cause, on the score of its burdensome operation, to 
complain of the syslom, but must look to other sources for the 
grievances wliich lie supposes afflict him. 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 213 

As respects the sale of his staple, it would be indifferent to 
tlie plainer, whether one portion of it was sold in Europe, and 
the other in America, provided the aggregate of both were equal 
to all that he could sell in one market, if he had but one, and 
piovided he could command the same price in both cases. The 
double market would, indeed, be something better for him, 
because of its greater security in time of war as well as in peace, 
and because it would be attended with less perils and less 
charges. If there be an equal amount of the raw material 
manufactured, it must be immaterial to the cotton planter, in 
the sale of the article, whether there be two theaters of the 
manufacture, one in Europe and the other in America, or but 
one in Europe ; or if there be a difference, it will be in favor 
of the two places of manufacture, instead of one, for reasons 
already assigned, and others that will be hereafter stated. 

It could be of no advantage to the cotton planter, if all the 
cotton, now manufactured both in Europe and America, was 
manufactured exclusively in Europe, and an amount of cotton 
fabrics should be brought back from Europe, equal to both what 
is now brought from there, and what is manufactured in the 
United States, together. While he would gain nothing, the 
United States would lose the profit and employment resulting 
from the manufacture of that portion which is now wrought up 
by the manufacturers of the United States. 

Unless, therefore, it can be shown, that, by the reduction of 
import duties, and the overthrow of the American system, and 
by limiting the manufacture of cotton to Europe, a greater 
amount of the raw material would be consumed than is at pres- 
ent, it is diflScult to see what interest, so far as respects the sale 
of that staple, the cotton planter has in the subversion of that 
system. If a reduction of duties would admit of laro-er invest- 
ments in British or European fabrics of cotton, and their subse- 
quent importation into this country, this additional supply would 
take the place, if consumed, of an equal amount of American 
manufactures, and consequently would not augment the general 
consumpiion of the raw material. Additional importation does 
not necessarily imply increased consumption, especially when it 



214 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

is effected by a policy which would impair the ability to purchase 
and consume. 

Upon the supposition just made, of a restriction to Europe of 
the manufacture of cotton, would more or less of the article be 
consumed than now is? More could not be, unless, in conse- 
quence of such a monopoly of the manufacture, Europe could 
sell more than she now does. But to what countries could she 
sell more ? She gets the raw material now unburdened by any 
duties except such moderate ones as her policy, not likely to be 
changed, imposes. She is enabled thereby to sell as much of 
the manufactured article as she can find markets for in the States 
within her own limits, or in foreign countries. The destruction 
of the American manufacture would not induce her to sell 
cheaper, but might enable her to sell dearer, than she now does. 
The ability of those foreign countries, to purchase and consume, 
would not be increased by the annihilation of our manufactures, 
and the monopoly of European manufacture. The probability 
is, that those foreign countries, by the fact of that monopoly, 
and some consequent increase of price, would be worse and 
dearer supplied than they now are, under the operation of a 
competition between America and Europe in their supply. 

At most, the United States, after the transfer from their Terri- 
tory to Europe, of the entire manufacture of the article, could 
not consume, of European fabrics from cotton, a greater amount 
than they now derive from Europe, and from manufactures within 
their own limits. 

But it is confidently believed, that the consumption of cotton 
fabrics, on the supposition which has been made, within the 
United States, would be much less than it is at present. It 
would be less, because the American consumer would not 
possess the means or ability to purchase as much of the Euro- 
pean fabric as he now does to buy the American. Europe pur- 
chases but little of the produce of the northern, middle, and 
western regions of the United States. The staple productions of 
those regions are excluded from her consumption by her policy, 
or by her native supplies of similar productions. The effect, 
therefore, of obliging ihe inl-abjiants of those regions to depend 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 215 

upon the cotton manufactures of Europe for necessary supplies 
of the article, would be alike injurious to them, and to the cotton 
grower. They would suffer from their inability to supply their 
wants, and there would be a consequent diminution of the con- 
sumption of cotton. By the location of the manufacture in the 
United States, the quantity of cotton consumed is increased, and 
the more numerous portion of their inliabitants, who would not 
be otherwise sufficiently supplied, are abundantly served. That 
this is the true state of things, I think, can not be doubted by 
any reflecting and unprejudiced man. The establishment of 
manufactures within the United States, enables the manufacturer 
to sell to the farmer, the mechanic, the physician, the lawyer, 
and all who are engaged in other pursuits of life ; and these, in 
their turns, supply the manufacturer with subsistence, and what- 
ever else his wants require. Under the influence of the pro- 
tecting policy, many new towns have been built, and old ones 
enlarged. The population of these places draw their subsistence 
from the farming interest of our country, their fuel from our 
forests and coal mines, and the raw materials from which they 
fashion and fabricate, from the cotton planter and the mines of 
our country. These mutual exchanges,^ so animating and invig< 
orating to the industry of the people of the United States, could 
not possibly be etfected between America and Europe, if the 
latter enjoyed the monopoly of manufacturing. 

It results, therefore, that, so far a^ the sale of the great South- 
ern staple is concerned, a greater quantity is sold and consumed, 
and consequently better prices are obtained, under the operation 
of the American system, than would be without it. Does that 
system oblige the cotton planter to buy dearer or worse articles 
of consumption than he could purchase, if it did not exist? 

The same cause of American and European competition, 
which enables him to sell more of the produce of his industr-y, 
and at better prices, also enables him to buy cheaper and better 
articles for consumption. It can not be doubted, that the tend- 
ency of the competition between the European and American 
manufacturer, is to reduce the price and improve the quality of 
their respective fabrics, whenever thev come into collision. This 



216 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY, 

is the immutable law of all competition. If the American manu- 
facture were discontinued, Europe would then exclusively fui-nish 
those supplies which are now derived from the eslablisliments 
in bolh continents ; and the first consequence would be, an aug- 
mentation of the demand, beyond the supply, equal to what is 
now manufactured in the United states, but which, in the con- 
tingency supposed, would be wrought in Europe. If the de- 
struction of the Amei'ican manufactures were sudden, there 
would be a sudden and probably a considerable rise in the 
European fabrics. Although, in the end, ihey might be again 
reduced, it is not likely that the ultimate reduction of the prices 
would be to such rates as if both the woikshops of America and 
Eui'ope remained sources of supply. There would also be a 
sudden reduction in the price of the raw material, in conse- 
quence of the cessation of American demand. And this reduc- 
tion would be permanent, if the supposition be correct, that 
there would be a diminution in the consumption of cotton 
fabrics, arising out of the inability, on the part of large por- 
tions of the people of the United States, to purchase those of 
Europe. 

That the effect of competition between the European and 
American manufacture, has been to supply the American con- 
sumer with cheaper and better articles, since the adoption of the 
American system, notwiths(a,nding the existence of causes which 
have obstructed its fair operation, and retarded its full develop- 
ment, is incontestable. Both the freeman and the slave are now 
better and cheaper supplied than they were prior to the existence 
of that system. Cotton fabrics have diminished in price, and 
been improved in their texture, to an extent that it is difficult for 
the imagination to keep pace with. Those pai'tly of cotton and 
partly of wool are also better and cheaper supplied. The same 
observalion is applicable to those which are exclusively wrought 
of wool, iron, or glass. In short, it is believed that there is not 
one item of the tariff inserted for the protection of native indus- 
try, which has imt fallen in price. The American competition 
has tended (o keep down tlie European rival fabric, and the 
European has (ciidcd (o 1(>\v(M' the American. 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 217 

Of what then can the South Carolina planter justly complain 
in the operation of this system? What is there in it which 
justifies the harsh and strong epithets which some of her politi- 
cians have applied to it? What is there in her condition, which 
warrants their assertion, that she is oppressed by a government 
to which she stands in the mere relation of a colony ? 

She is oppressed by a great reduction in the price of manu- 
factured articles of consumption. 

She is oppressed by the advantage of two markets for the sale 
of her valuable staple, and for the purchase of objects required 
by her wants. 

She is oppressed by better prices for that stap'e than she could 
command, if the system to which they object did not exist. 

She is oppressed by the option of purchasing cheaper and 
better articles, the produce of the hands of American freemen, 
instead of dearer and worse articles, the produce of the hands 
of British subjects. 

She is oppressed by the measures of a government in which 
she has had, for many years, a larger proportion of power and 
influence, at home and abroad, than any Slate in the whole 
Union, in comparison with the population. 

A glance at the composition of the Government of the Union, 
will demonstrate the truth of this last proposition. In the Senate 
of the United States, South Carolina having the presiding officer, 
exercises nearly one sixteenth, instead of one twenty-fourth part 
of both its legislative and executive functions. 

In both branches of Congress, some of her citizens now 

occupy, as chairmen of committees, the most important and 

influential stations. In the Supreme Court of the United States, 

one of her citizens being a member, she has one seventh part, 

instead of about one twentieth, her equal proportion of the whole 

power vested in that tribunal. Until within a few months, she 

had nearly one third of all the missions of the first grade, from 

this to foreign countries. In a contingency, which is far from 

impossible, a citizen of South Carolina would instantly become 

charged with the administration of the whole of the vast power 

and patronage of ibv United States. 
19 



218 SPEECHES OF HENllY CLAY. 

Yet her situation has been compared to that of a colony which 
has no voice in the laws enacted by the parent country for its 
subjection ! And to be relieved from this cruel state of vassal- 
age, and to put down a system which has been established by 
the united voice of all America, some of her politicians have 
broached a doctrine, as new as it would be alarming if it were 
sustained by numbers in proportion to the zeal and fervid elo- 
quence with which it is inculcated. I call it a novel doctrine. 
I am not unaware that attempts have been made to support it on 
the authority of certain acts of my native and adopied States. 
Although many of their ciiizcns ai-e much more competent than 
I am to vindicate them from this imputation of purposes of dis- 
union and rebellion, my veneration and affection for them both, 
urge me to bear my testimony of their innocence of such a 
chai'ge. At the epoch of 1798-9, I had just attained my ma- 
jority, and although I was too young to share in the public 
councils of my country, I was acquainted with many of the 
actors of that memorable period ; I knew their views, and formed 
and freely expressed my own opinions on passing events. The 
then administration of the General Government was believed to 
entertain views (whether the belief was right or wrong is not 
material to this argument, and is noAV an affair of history), 
hostile to the existence of the liberties of this country. The 
alien and the sedition laws, particularly, and other measures, 
were thought to be the consequences and proofs of those views. 
If the administration had such a purpose, it was feared that the 
extreme case, justifying forcible resistance, might ai'ise, but no 
one believed that, in point of fact, it had arrived. No one con- 
tended that a single Slate possessed the power to annul the delib- 
erate acts of the whole. And the best evidence of these remarks 
is the fact, that the most odious of those laws (the sedition act), 
was peaceably enforced in the Capitol of that great State which 
took the lead in opposition to the existing administration. 

The doctrines of that day, and they are as true at this, were, 
that the federal government is a limited government; that it has 
no powers but the granted powers. Virginia contended, that in 
case "of a loalpahle, doliberate, and dangerous exercise of other 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 219 

powers not granted by said compact, the States, who are parties 
thereto, have ihe right to interpose for arresting the progress of 
the evil, a!id for maintaining, within their respective limits, the 
authorities, righls, and liberties, appertaining to them." Ken- 
tucky declared, thai the "several Stales, that framed that instru- 
ment, the federal Constitution, being sovereign and independent, 
have the unquestionable right to judge of its instructions, and a 
nullification by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts, done 
under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy." 

Neither of these two commonwealths asserted the right of a 
single State to interpose and annul an act of the whole. This is 
an inference drawn from the doctrines then laid down, and it is 
not a principle expressly asserted or fairly deducible from the 
language of either. Both refer to the States collectively (and 
not individually), when they assert their right, in case of federal 
usurpation, to interpose "for arresting the progress of evil." 
Neither State ever did, no State ever yet has, by its separate 
leoislation, undei'taken to set aside an act of Cono-ress. 

That the States collectively , may interpose their authority to 
check the evils of federal usurpation, is manifest. They may 
dissolve the Union. They may alter, at pleasure, the character 
of the Constitution, by amendment ; they may annul any acts 
purporting to have been passed in conformity to it, or they may, 
by their elections, change the functionaries to whom the admin- 
istration of its powers is confided. But no one State, by itself, 
is competent to accomplish these objects. The power of a single 
State to annul an ad of the whole, has been reserved for the 
discovery of some politicians in South-Carolina. 

It is not my purpose, upon an occasion so unfit, to discuss 
this pretension. Upon another and a more suitable theater, it has 
been examined and refuted, with an ability and eloquence which 
have never been surpassed on the floor of Congress. But, as i( 
is announced to be one of the means which is intended to be em- 
ployed to break down the American system, I trust that I shall 
be excused for a few additional passing observations. On a late 
festive occasion, in the State where it appears to find most favor, 
it is said, by a genileman whom 1 once proudly called my friend, 



220 SPEECHES OF IIENKY CLAY. 

and toward whom I liave done nothing to change that relation, — 
a gentleman who has been high in the councils and confidence 
of the nation, that the Tariff must be resisted at all hazards. 
Another oentleman, who is a candidate for the chief magisti-acy 
of that State, declares that the time and the case for resistance 
had arrived. And a third, a senator of the United Stales, who 
enjoys unbounded confidence with the American Executive, laid 
down principles and urged arguments tending directly and inev- 
itably to violent resistance, although he did not indicate that as 
his specific remedy. 

The doctrine of some of the South- Carolina politicians is, that 
it is competent to that State to annul, wiihin its limits, the aiithor- 
ity of an act deliberately passed by the Congress of the United 
States. They do not, appear to have looked much beyond the 
simple act of nullification, into the consequences which would 
ensue, and have not distinctly announced, whether one of them 
might not necessarily be, to light up a civil war. They seem, 
however, to suppose, that the State might, after the act was per- 
formed, remain a member of the Union. Now if one State can, 
by an act of its separate power, absolve itself from the obligations 
of a law of Congress, and continue a part of the Union, it could 
hardly be expected, that any other State would render obedience 
to the same law. Either every other State would follow the nul- 
lifying example, or Congress would feel itself constrained, by a 
sense of equal duty to all parts of the Union, to repeal altogether 
the nullified law. Thus, the doctrine of South-Carolina, although 
it nominally assumes to act for one State only, in effect, would' 
be legislating for the whole Union. 

Congress embodies the collective will of the whole Union, and 
that of South- Carolina amono- its other members. The legisla- 
tion of Congress is, therefore, founded upon the basis of the 
representation of all. In the Legislature, or a convention of 
South-Cavolina, the will of the people of that State is alone col- 
lected. Tliey alone are represented, and the people of no other 
Stale have any voice in iheir proceedings. To set up for that 
Slate a claim, by a separate exercise of its power, to legislate, in 
eftcct, fi)r tlie w'hole Union, is to assert a pretension at war with 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 221 

tlie fundamental principles of all representative and free govern- 
ments. It would practically subject the unrepresented people of 
' all other parts of the Union to the arbitrary and despotic power 
of one State. It would substantially convert them into colonies, 
bound by the parental authority of that State. 

Nor can this enormous pretension derive any support from the 
consideration, that the power to annul, is different from the 
power to originate laws. Both powers are, in their nature, legis- 
lative ; and the mischiefs which might accrue to the republic 
from the annulment of its wholesome laws, may be just as great 
as those which would flow from the origination of bad laws. 
There are three things to which, more than all others, mankind 
in all ages, have shown themselves to be attached ; their religion, 
their Imvs, and their language. 

But it has been argued, in the most solemn manner, " that the 
acknowledgments of the exclusive right of the federal govern- 
ment to determine the limits of its own powers, amounts to a re- 
cognition of its absolute supremacy over the States and the people, 
and involves the sacrifice not only of our dearest rights and 
interests, but the very existence of the southern States." 

In cases where there are two systems of government, operating 
at the same time and place, over the same people, the one gen- 
eral, the other local or particular, one system or the other must 
possess the right to decide upon the extent of the powers, in 
cases of collision, which are claimed by the general government. 
No third party, of sufficient impartiality, weight, and responsi- 
bility, other than such a tribunal as the supreme court, has yet 
been devised, or perhaps can be ci'eated. 

The doctrine of one side is, that the general government, 
though limited in its nature, must necessarily possess the power 
to ascertain what authority it has, and, by consequence, the 
extent of that authority. And that, if its legislative or execu- 
tive functionaries, by act, transcend that authority, the question 
may be brought before the supreme court, and, being aflSrma- 
tively decided by that tribunal, their act must be obeyed until 
repealed or altered by competent power. 

Against the tendency of this doctrine to absorb all power. 



222 SPEECHES OF HENRY OLAY. 

those who maintain it, think thei'e are I'easonable, and, they hope, 
sufficient securities. In the first place, all are represented in 
every legislative or executive ac(, and of course, each Slate can 
exert its proper influence, to prevent the adoption of any that 
may be deemed pi'ejudicial or unconstitutional. Then, there are 
sacred oaths, elections, public virtue and intelligence, the power 
of impeachment, a common subjection to both systems of those 
functionaries who act under either, the I'ight of the Stales to 
interpose and amend the Constitution, or to dissolve the Union ; 
and, finally, the right, in extreme cases, when all other remedies 
fail, to resist insupportable oppression. 

The necessity being felt, by the framers of the Constitution, 
to declare which system should be supreme, and believing that 
the securities now enumerated, or some of them, were adequate, 
they have accordingly provided, that the Constitution of the 
United States, and the laws made in pursuance of it, and all 
treaties made under the aulhoiity of the United States, sliall be 
the supreme law of the land ; and that the judicial power shall 
extend to all cases arising under the Constitution, laws, or trea- 
ties, of the United States. 

The South Carolina doctrine, on the other side, is, that that 
State has the right to determine the limits of the powei-s granted 
to the general government; and that whenever any of its acts 
transcend those limits, in the opinion of the State of South Caro- 
lina,, she is competent to annul them. If the power, with which 
the fedeial government is invested by the Constitution, to deter- 
mine the limits of its authority, be liable to the possible danger 
of ultimate consolidation, and all the safeguards which have been 
mentioned might prove inadequate, is not this power, claimed for 
South Carolina, fraught with infinitely more certain, immediate, 
and fatal danger ? It would reverse the rule of supremacy pre- 
scribed in the Constitution. It would render the authority of a 
single Siate paramount to that of the whole Union. For un- 
doubtedly, that government, to some extent, must be supreme, 
wliich can annul and set aside the acts of another. 

The securities which the people of other parts of the United 
States possess against the abuse of this tremendous power 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC, 223 

claimed for South Carolina, will be found, on comparison, to be 
greatly inferior to those which she has against the possible 
abuses of the general government. They have no voice in her 
counsels ; they could not, by the exercise of the elective fran- 
chise, change her rulers ; they could not impeach her judges, 
they could not alter her Constitution, nor abolish her govern- 
ment. 

Under the South Carolina doctrine, if established, the conse- 
quence would be a dissolution of the Union, immediate, inevita- 
ble, irresistible. There would be twenty-four chances to one 
against its continued existence. The apprehended dangers of 
the opposite doctrine, remote, contingent, and hardly possible, 
are greatly exaggerated ; and, against their realization, all the 
precautions have been provided, which human wisdom and 
patriotic foresight could conceive and devise. 

Those who are opposed to the supremacy of the Constitution, 
laws, and treaties of the United States, are adverse to all union, 
whatever contrary professions they may make. For it mav be 
truly affirmed, that no confederacy of States can exist without a 
power, somewhere residing in the government of that confed- 
eracy, to determine the extent of the authority granted to it by 
the confederating States. 

It is admitted, that the South Carolina doctrine is liable to 
abuse; but it is contended, that the patriotism of each Slate is an 
adequate security, and that the nullifying power would only be 
exercised "in an extraordinary case, where the powers reserved 
to the States, under the Constitution, are usurped by the Federal 
Government." And is not the patriotixm of all the States, as 
great a safeguard against the assumption of powers, not conferred 
upon the general government, as the patriotism of one State is 
against the denial of po#ers which are clearly granted ? But 
the nullifying power is only to be exercised in an extraordinary 
case. Who is to judge of this extraordinary case ? What 
security is there, especially in moments of great excitement, that 
a State may not pronounce the plainest and most common exer- 
cise of Federal power an extraordinary case ? The expressions 
in the Constitution, "genp:,-?! welfare," have been often justly 



224 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

criticised, and shown to convey, in themselves, no power, 
although they may indicate how the delegated power should be 
exercised. But this doctrine of an extraordinary case, to be 
judged of and applied by one of the twenty-four sovereignties, 
is replete with infinitely more danger than the doctrine of the 
"general welfare," in the hands of all. 

We may form some idea of future abuses under the South 
Carolina doctrine, by the application which is now proposed to 
be made of it. The American system is said to furnish an 
extraordinary case, justifying that State to nullify it. The power 
to regulate foreign commerce, by a Tariff, so adjusted as to foster 
our domestic manufactures, has been exercised from the com- 
mencement of our present Constitution down to the last session 
of Congress, I have been a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives at three different periods, when the subject of the 
tariff was debated at great length, and on neither, according to 
my recollection, was the want of a constitutional power in Con- 
gress, to enact it, dwelt on as forming a serious and substantial 
objection to its passage. On the last occasion (I think it was) 
in which I participated in the debate, it was incidentally said to 
be against the spirit of the Constitution. While the authority 
of the father of the Constitution is invoked to sanction, by a per- 
version of his meaning, principles of disunion and rebellion, it 
is rejected to sustain the controverted power, although his testi- 
mony in support of it has been clearly and explicitly rendered. 
This power, thus asserted, exercised, and maintained, in favor 
of which leading politicians in South Carolina have themselves 
voted, is alleged to furnish "an extraordinary case," where 
the powers reserved to the States, under the Constitution, are 
usui'ped by the general government. If it be, there is scarcely 
a statute in our code which would not present a case equally 
extraordinary, justifying South Carolina or any other State to 
nullify it. 

The United States are not only threatened with the nullification 
of numerous acts, which they have deliberately passed, but Avith 
H withdrawal of one of the members from the confederacy. If 
the unhappy case should ever occur, of a State being really 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 225 

desirous to separate itself from the Union, it would present two 
questions. The first would be, wliether it had a right to with- 
draw, without the common consent of the members ; and sup- 
posing, as I believe, no such right to exist, whether it would be 
expedient to yield consent. Although there may be power to 
prevent a secession, it might be deemed politic to allow it. It 
might be considered expedient to permit the refractory State 
to take the portion of goods that falleth to her, to sutler her 
to gather her all together, and to go off with her living. But, 
if a State should be willing, and allowed thus to depart, 
and to renounce her future portion of the inheritance of this 
great, glorious and prosperous Republic, she would speedily 
return, and, in language of repentance, say to the other mem- 
bers of this Union, brethren, "I have sinned against heaven 
and before thee." Whether they would kill the fatted calf, 
and, chiding any complaining member of the family, say, " this 
thy sister was dead, and is alive again ; and was lost, and is 
found," I sincerely pray the historian may never have occasion 
to record. 

But nullification and disunion are not the only, nor the most 
formidable, means of assailing the tariff. Its opponents opened 
the campaign at the last session of Congress, and, with the most 
obliging frankness, have since publicly exposed their plan of 
operations. It is, to divide and conquer ; to attack and subdue 
the system in detail. They began by reducing the duty on salt 
and molasses, and, restoring the drawback of the duty on the 
latter article, allowed the exportation of spirits distilled from it. 
To all Avho are interested in the distillation of spirits from native 
materials, whether fruit, molasses or gi'ain, this latter measure is 
particularly injurious. During the administration of Mr.,Adam9, 
the duty on foreign molasses was augmented, and the drawback, 
which had been previously allowed of the duty upon the expor- 
tation of spirits distilled from it, was repealed. The object was 
to favor native produce, and to lessen the competition of foreign 
spirits, or spirits distilled from foreign materials, with spirits 
distilled from domestic material. It was deemed to be especially 
advantageous to the Western country, a great part of whose 



226 SPEECHES OF IIENRT CLAY. 

grain can only find markets at home and abroad by beino- con- 
verted into distilled spirits. Encouraged by this partial success, 
the foes of the tariff may next attempt to reduce the duiies on 
iron, woolens, and cotton fabrics, successively. The American 
system of protection sliuuld be regarded, as it is, an entii'e and 
comprehensive system, made up of various items, and aimino- at 
the prosperity of the whole Union, by protecting the interests of 
each part. Every part, therefore, has a direct interest in the 
protection which it enjoys of the articles, which its agriculture 
produces, or its manufactories fabricate, and also a collateral 
interest in the protection which other portions of the Union 
derive from their peculiar interests. Thus, the ao-o-i'eo-ate of 
the prosperity of all is constituted by the sums of the prosperity 
of each. 

Take any one article of the tariff (iron, for example), and 
there is no such direct interest in its protection, pervadincr the 
major part of the United States, as would induce Cono-ress to 
encourage it, if it stood alone. The States of Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey, New York and Kentucky, which are most con- 
cerned, are encouraged in the production or manufacture of this 
article, in consequence of the adoption of a general principle, 
which extends protection to other interests in other parts of the 
Union. 

The stratagem which has been adopted by the foes of the 
system, to destroy it, requires the exercise of constant vigilance 
and firmness, to prevent the accomplishment of the object. 
They have resolved to divide and conquer, — the friends of the 
system should assume the revolutionary motto of our ancestors, 
"united we stand, divided we fall." They should allow no 
alteration in any part of the system, as it now exists, which did 
not aim at rendering more efficacious the system of protection, 
on which the whole is founded. Every one should reflect, that 
It IS not equal, to have a particular interest which he is desirous 
should be fostered, in his part of the country, protected against 
foreign competition, without liis being willing to extend the 
principle to other interests, deserving protection, in other parts 
of the Union. 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 227 

But the measure of reducing the duty on salt and molasses, 
and revivnig the drawback on the imporiation of spirits distilled 
from molasses, was an attack on the system, less alarming than 
another which was made during the last session of Congress, on 
a ki idred system. 

If any thing could be considered as settled, under the present 
Constiiution of our Government, I had supposed tliat it was its 
auUioriiy to construct such internal improvements as may be 
deemed by Congress necessary and proper to carry into effect 
tlie power granted to it. For nearly twenty-five years, the power 
has been asserted and exercised by the Government. For the 
last fifteen years it has been often controverted in Ct)ngress, but 
it has been invaiiably maintained, in that body, by repeated 
decisions, pronounced, after full and elaborate debate, and at 
intervals of lime implying the greatest deliberation. Numerous 
laws attest the existence of the power; and no less than twenty- 
odd laws have been passed in relation to a single work. This 
power, necessary to all parts of the Union, is indispensable to 
the West. Without it, this section can never enjoy any part 
of the benefit of a regular disbursement of the vast revenues 
of the United States. I recollect perfectly well, that, at the 
last great struggle for the power, in 1824, Mr. P. P. Barbour 
of Virginia, the principal champion against it, observed to me, 
that if it were affirmed on that occasion (Mr. Hemphill's survey 
bill), he should consider the question settled. And it was 
affirmed. 

Yet we are told, that this power can no longer be exercised 
without an amendment of the Constitution ! On the occasion in 
South Carolina, to which I have already adverted, it was said, 
that the tariff and internal improvements are intimately con- 
nected, and that the death-blow which it was hoped the one had 
received, will finally destroy the other. I concur in the opinion, 
that they are intimately, if not indissolubly, united. Not con- 
nected too-ether, with the fraudulent intent which has been im- 
puted, but by their nature, by the tendency of each to advance 
the objects of the other, and of both to augment the sum of 
national prosperity. 



228 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

If I could believe that the Executive message, which was 
communicated to Congress upon the application of the veto to 
the Maysville road, really expressed the opinion of the President 
of the United States, in consequence of the unfortunate relations 
which have existed between us, I would forbear to make any 
observation upon it. It has his name affixed to it; but it is 
not every paper which bears the name of a distinguished per- 
sonage, that is his, or expresses his opinions. We have been 
lately informed, that the unhappy king of England, in perhaps 
his last illness, transmitted a paper to Parliament, with his royal 
signature attached to it, which became an object of great curi- 
osity. Can any one believe, that that paper conveyed any other 
sentiments than those of his majesty's ministers? It is impos- 
sible, that the veto message should express the opinions of the 
President, and I prove it by evidence derived from himself. 
Not forty days before that message was sent to Congress, he 
approved a bill embracing appropriations to various objects of 
internal improvement, and among others, to improve the naviga- 
tion of Conneaut Creek. Although somewhat acquainted wkh 
the geography of our country, I declare, I did not know of the 
existence of such a stream until I read the bill. I have since 
made it an object of inquiry, and have been told, that it rises in 
one corner of Pennsylvania, and is discharged into Lake Erie, 
in a corner of the State of Ohio; and that the utmost extent, to 
which its navigation is susceptible of improvement, is about 
seven miles. Is it possible, that the President could conceive 
that a national object, and that the improvement of a great thor- 
oughfare, on which the mail is transported for some eight or ten 
Slates and Territories, is not a national consideration ? The 
power to improve the navigation of watercourses, nowhere ex- 
pressly recognized in the Constitution, is infinitely more doubtful 
than the establishment of mail roads, which is explicitly author- 
ized in that instrument! Did not the President, duiing the 
canvass which preceded his election, in his answer to a letter 
from Governor Ray, of Indiana, written at the instance of the 
Senate of that respectable State, expressly refer to his votes given 
in the Senate of the United States, for his opinion as to the power 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 229 

of the general government, and inform him that his opinion 
remained unahered? And do we not find, upon consuUing the 
journals of the Senate, that among other votes affirming the 
existence of the power, he voted for an appropriation to the 
Chesapeake and Delaware canal, which is only about fourteen 
miles in extent? And do we not know that it was at that time, 
like the Maysville road now, in progi-ess of execution under the 
direction of a company incorporated by a State ? And that, 
while the Maysville road had a connection with roads east of 
Maysville and south-west of Lexington, the turnpiking of which 
was contemplated, that canal had no connection with any other 
exislin"' canal. 

The veto message is perfectly irreconcilable with the previous 
acts, votes, and opinions of General Jackson. It does not ex- 
press his opinions, but those of his advisers and counselors, and 
especially those of his cabinet. If we look at the composition of 
that cabinet, we can not doubt it. Three of the five who, I 
believe, compose it (whether the postmaster-general be one or 
not, I do not knoAv), are known to be directly and positively 
opposed to the power ; a fourth, to use a term descriptive of the 
favorite policy of one of them, is a non-committal, and as to the 
fifih, good Lord deliver us from such friendship as his to inter- 
nal nuprovements. Further, I have heard it from good authority 
(but I will not vouch for it, although I believe it to be true), 
that some of the gentlemen from the South waited upon the 
President, while he held the Maysville bill under consideration, 
and told him if he approved of that bill, the South would no 
longer approve of him, but oppose his administration. 

I cannot, therefore, consider the message as conveying the 
sentiments and views of the President. It is impossible. It is 
the work of his cabinet; and if, unfortunately, they were not 
practically irresponsible to the people of the United States, they 
would deserve severe animadversions for having prevailed upon 
the President, in the precipitation of business, and perhaps with- 
out his spectacles, to put his name to si-'-.h a paper, and send it 
forth to Congress and to the nation. Why, I have read that 
paper again and again ; and 1 never can peruse it without thinking 



230 SPEECHES OF HBNKY CLAY. 

of diplomacy, and the name of Talleyrand, Talleyrand, Tal- 
leyrand, perpetually reclining-. It seems to liave been written 
in the spirit of an accommodating- soul, who being determined 
to have fair weather in any contingency, was equally ready to 
cry out, good lord, good devil. Are you for internal improve- 
ments? you may exti-act from the message texts enough to sup- 
port your opinion. Are you against them ? the message supplies 
you with abundant authority to countenance your views. Do 
you think that a long and uninterrupted current of concurring 
decisions ought to settle the question of a controverted power ? 
so the authors of the message affect to believe. But ought any 
precedents, however numerous, to be allowed to establish a doubt- 
ful poAver ? the message agrees with him who thinks not. 

I can not read this reg-ular document without thinkinar of Tal- 
leyrand. That remarkable person was one of the most eminent 
and fortunate men of the Fiench revolution. Prior to its com- 
mencement, he held a bishopric under the ill-fated Louis the 
sixteenth. When that great political storm showed itself above 
the horizon, he saw which way the wind was going to blow, and 
trimmed his sails accordingly. He was in the majority of the 
convention, of the national assembly, and of the party that sus- 
tained the bloody Eobespierre and his cut-throat successor. He 
belonged to the party of the consuls, the consul for life, and 
finally the emperor. Whatever party was uppermost, you would 
see the head of Talleyrand always high among them, never down. 
Like a ceriain dextrous animal, throw him as you please, head 
or tail, back or belly uppermost, he is always sure to light upon 
his feet. During a great part of the period described, he was 
minister of foreign affairs, and although totally devoid of all piin- 
ciple, no man ever surpassed him in adroitness of his diplomatic 
notes. He is now, at an advanced age, I believe, grand cham- 
berlain of his majesty, Charles the tenth. 

I have lately seen an amusing anecdote of this celebrated man, 
which forces itself upon me whenever I look at the cabinet mes- 
sage. The king of France, like our President, toward the close 
of the last session of Congress, found himself in a minority. A 
question arose, whether, in consequence, he should dissolve the 



THE AMEKICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 231 

Chamber of Deputies, which resembles our House of Represen- 
tatives. All France was agitated with the question. No one 
could solve it. At length, they concluded to go to that saga- 
cious, cunning old fox, Talleyrand, to let them know what should 
be (lone. I tell you what gentlemen, said he (looking very 
gravely, and taking a pinch of snuff), in the morning I think 
his majesty will dissolve the Deputies; at noon I have changed 
that opinion ; and at night I have no opinion at all. Now,''on 
reading the first column of this message, one thinks that the 
cabinet have a sort of an opinion in favor of internal improve- 
ments, with some limitations. By the time he has read to the 
middle of it, he concludes they have adopted the opposite opin- 
ion ; and wiien he gets to the end of it, he is perfectly per- 
suaded, they have no opinion of their own whatever. 

Let us glance at a few only of the reasons, if reasons they can 
be called, of this piebald message. The first is, that the exer- 
cise of the power has produced discord, and, to resloi-e harmony 
to the national councils, it should be abandoned, or, which is 
tantamount, the Constitution must be amended. The President 
is therefore advised to throw himself into the minority. Well- 
did that revive harmony ? When the question was taken in the 
House of the people's Representatives, an obstinate majority still 
voted for the bill, the objections in the message notwithstandino-. 
And m the Senate, the representatives of the States, a refractory 
majority, stood unmoved. But does the message mean to assert, 
that no great measure, about which public sentiment is much 
divided, ought to be adopted in consequence of that division ' 
Ihen none can ever be adopted. Apply this new rule to the 
case of the American Revolu,i.,n. The colonies were rent into 
implacable parties— the tories everywhere abounded, and in some 
places outnumbered the whigs. This continued to be the slate 
ot ilnngs throughout the revolutionary contest. Suppose some 
t.niul, time-serving whig had, during its progress, addressed 
the public, and, adverting to the discord which prevailed, and 
to the expediency of restoring harmony in the land, had proposed 
to abandon or postpone the establishment of our liberty and inde- 
pendence, until all should ag.'ee in asserting them? The late 



232 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

war was opposed by a poAverful and talented party ; Avhat would 
have been thought of President Madison, if, instead of a patriotic 
and energetic message, recommending it, as the only alternative, 
to preserve our honor and vindicate our right, he had come to 
Cono-ress with a proposal that we should continue to submit to 
the wrono-s and degradation inflicted upon our country by a for- 
eign power, because we were, unhappily, greatly divided ? What 
would have become of the settlement of the Missouri question, 
the tariff", the Indian bill of the last session, if the existence of a 
strono- and almost equal division in the public councils ought to 
have prevented their adoption ? The principle is nothing more 
nor less than a declaration, that the right of the majority to gov- 
ern, must yield to the perseverance, respectability, and numbers 
of the minority. It is in keeping with the nullifying doctrines 
of South Carolina, and is such a principle as might be expected 
to be put forth by such a cabinet. The Government of the 
United States, at tins juncture, exhibits a most remarkable spec- 
tacle. It is that of a majority of the nation having put the powers 
of Government into the hands of the minority. If any one can 
doubt this, let him look back at the elements of the Executive, at 
the presiding officers of the two Houses, at the composition and 
the chairmen of the most important committees, who shape and 
direct the public business in Congress. Let him look, above all, 
at measures, the necessary consequences of such an anomalous 
state of things — internal improvements gone, or going ; the whole 
American system threatened, and the triumphant shouts of antici- 
pated victory sounding in our ears. Georgia, extorting from the 
fears of an affrighted majority of Congress an Indian bill, which 
may prostrate all the laws, treaties, and policy which have regu- 
lated our relations with the Indians from the commencement of 
our Government ; and politicians in South Carolina, at the same 
time, brandishing the torch of civil war, and pronouncing un- 
bounded eulogiums upon the President, for the good he has done, 
and the still greater good which they expect at his hands, and 
the sacrifice of the interests of the majority. 

Another reason assigned in the Maysville message is, the desire 
of paying the national debt. By an act passed in the year 1817, 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 233 

an annual appropriation was made of ten millions of dollars, 
which were vested in the commissioners of the sinking fund, to 
pay the principal and interest of the public debt. Thlt act was 
prepared and carried through Congress by one of the most, esti- 
mable and enlightened men that this country ever produced, 
whose premature death is to be lamented on every account, but 
especially because, if he were now living, he would be able, 
more than any other man, to check the extravagance and calm 
the violence raging in South Carolina, his native State. Under 
the operation of that act, nearly one hundred and iifty millions 
of the principal and interest of the public debt were paid, prior 
to the commencement of the present administration. During 
that of Mr. Adams, between forty and fifty were paid, while 
larger appropriations of money and land were made, to objects 
of internal improvements, than ever had been made by all pre- 
ceding administrations together. There only remained about 
fifty millions to be paid, when the present chief magistrate 
entered on the duties of that office, and a considerable portion 
of that can not be discharged during the present official term. 

The redemption of the debt is, therefore, the work of Con- 
gress ; the President has nothing to do with it, the Secretary of 
the Treasury being directed annually to pay the ten millions to 
the commissioners of the sinking fund, whJse duty it is to apply 
the amount to the extinguishment of the debt. The Secretary 
himself has no more to do with the operation, than the hydrants 
through which the water passes to the consumption of the popu- 
lation of this city. He turns the cock on the first of January, 
and the first of July, in each year, and the public treasure is 
poured out to the public creditor from the reservoir, filled by 
the wisdom of Congress. It is evident, from this just view of 
the matter, that Congress, to which belongs the care of providing 
the ways and means, was as competent as the President to 
determine what portion of their constituents' money could be 
applied to the improvement of their condition. As much of the 
public debt as can be paid, will be discharged in four years by 
the operation of the sinking fund. I have seen, in some late 
paper, a cabulation of the delay which would have resulted in 



234 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

its payment, from the appropriation to the Maysville loal, and it 
was less than one week ! How has it happened, that, under the 
administration of Mr. Adams, and during every year of it, such 
lari'-e and liberal appropriations could be made for internal im- 
provements, without touching the fund devoted to the public 
debt, and that this administration should find itself balked in 
its first year ? 

The veto message proceeds to insist, that the Maysville and 
Lexington road is not a national, but a local road, of sixty miles 
in length, and confined within the limits of a particular State. If, 
as that document also asserts, the power can, in no case, be exer- 
cised until it shall have been explained and defined by an amend- 
ment of the Constitution, the discrimination of national and local 
roads would seem to be altogether unnecessary. What is or is 
not a national road, the message supposes may admit of contro- 
versy, and is not susceptible of precise definition. The difficulty 
which its authors imagine, grows out of their attempt to substi- 
tute a rule founded upon the extent and locality of the road, 
instead of the use and j^urposes to which it is applicable. If the 
road facilitates, in a considerable degree, the transportation of the 
mail to a considerable portion of the Union, and at the same time 
promotes internal commerce among several States, and may tend 
to accelerate the movement of armies, and the distribution of the 
munitions of war, it is of national consideration. Tested by this, 
the tiue rule, the Maysville road was undoubtedly national. It 
connects the largest body, perhaps, of fertile land in the Union, 
with the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and 
with the canals of the States of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New 
Yoik. It beo-ins on the line which divides the States of Ohio 
and Kentucky, and, of course, quickens trade and intercourse 
between them. Tested by the character of other works, for 
which the President, as a Senator, voted, or which were approved 
by liim only about a month before he rejected the Maysville bill, 
the road was undoubtedly national. 

But this view of the matter, however satisfactory it ought to 
be, is imperfect. It will be admitted, that the Cumberland road is 
national. It is completed no farther than Zanesville, in the State 



Tllli AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 235 

of Ohio. On reaching that point, two routes present themselves 
for its^further extension, both national, and both deserving of 
execution. One leading north-westwardly, through the States 
of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, to Missouri, and the other south- 
westwardly, through the States of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee 
and Alabama, to the Gulf of Mexico. Both have been long 
contemplated. Of the two, the south-western is the most 
wanted, in the present state of population, and will probably 
always be of the greatest use. But the north-western route is 
in progress of execution beyond Zanesville, and appropriations 
toward part of it, were sanctioned by the President at the last 
session. National highways can only be executed in sections, 
at difterent times. So the Cumberland road was and continues 
to be constructed. Of all the parts of the south-western route, 
the road from Maysville to Lexington is most needed, whether 
we regard the amount of transportation and traveling upon it, or 
the impediments which it presents in the winter and spring 
months. It took ray family four days to reach Lexington from 
Maysville, in April, 1 829. 

The same scheme which has been devised and practiced to 
defeat the tariflF, has been adopted to undermine internal improve- 
ments. They are to be attacked in detail. Hence the rejection 
of the Maysville road, the Fredericktown road, and the Louis- 
ville canal. But is this fair ? Ought each proposed road to be 
viewed separately and detached ? Ought it not to be considered 
in connection with other great works which are in progress of 
execution, or are projected ? The policy of the foes indicates 
what ought to be the policy of the friends of the power. 

The blow aimed at internal improvements has fallen with 
unmerited severity upon the State of Kentucky. No State in the 
Union has ever shown more generous devotion to its preserva- 
tion and to the support of its honor and its interest, than she has. 
During the late war, her sons fought gallantly by the side of the 
President, on the glorious eighth of January, when he covered 
himself with unfading laurels. Wherever the war raged, they 
were to be found among the foremost in battle, freely bleeding 
in the service of their country. They have never threatened nor 



236 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

calculated the value of this happy Union. Their representatives 
in Cono-ress have constantly and almost unanimously supported 
the power, cheerfully voting for laige appropriations to works 
of internal improvements in other States. Not one cent of the 
common treasure has been expended on any public road in that 
State. They contributed to the elevation of the President, 
under a firm conviction, produced by his deliberate acts, and 
his solemn assertions, that he was friendly to the power. Under 
such circumstances, have they not just and abundant cause 
of surprise, regret and mortification, at the late unexpected 
decision ? 

Another mode of destroying the system, about which I fear I 
have detained you too long, which its foes hav^e adopted, is to 
assail the chai'acter of its friends. Can you otherwise account 
for the spirit of animosity with which I am pursued ? A senti- 
ment this morning caught my eye, in the shape of a fourth of 
July toast, proposed at the celebration of that anniversary in 
South Carolina, by a gentleman whom I never saw, and to whom 
I am a total stranger. With humanity, charity, and Christian 
benevolence unexampled, he wished that I might be driven so 
far beyond the frigid regions of the northern zone, that all hell 
could not thaw me ! Do you believe it was against me, this 
feeble and frail form, tottering with age, this lump of perishing 
clay, that all this kindness was directed ? No, no, no. It was 
against the measures of policy which I have espoused, against 
the system which I have labored to uphold, that it was aimed. 
If I had been opposed to the tariff and internal improvements, 
and in f;ivor of the South Carolina doctrine of nullification, the 
same worthy gentleman would have wished that I might be ever 
fanned by soft breezes, charged with aromatic odors, — that my 
path might be strewed with roses, and my abode be an earthly 
paradise. I am now a private man, the humblest of the humble, 
possessed of no office, no power, no patronage, no subsidized 
press, no post-office department to distribute its effusions, no 
army, no navy, no official corps to chant my praises, and to 
di-iiik, in flowing bowls, my health and prosperity. I have 
notliing but tlio warm aftections of a portion of the people, and 



THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, ETC. 237 

A fair reputation, the only inheritance derived from my tather, 
*tnd almost the only inheritance which I am desirous of trans- 
mitting to my children. 

The present chief magistrate has done me much wrong-, but I 
have freely forgiven him. He believed, no doubt, that I had 
done him previous wrong. Although I am unconscious of it, 
he had that motive for his conduct toward me. But others, who 
had joined in the hue and cry against me, had no such pretext. 
Why then am I thus pursued, my words perverted and distorted, 
my acts misrepresented ? Why do more than a hundred presses 
daily point their cannon at me, and thunder forth their peals of 
abuse and detraction ? It is not against me. That is impossible. 
A few years more, and this body will be where all is still and 
silent. It is against the principles of civil liberty, against the 
tarif}' and internal improvements, to which the better part of mv 
life has been devoted, that this implacable war is waged. My 
enemies flatter themselves, that those systems may be overthrown 
by my destruction. Vain and impotent hope ! My existence is 
not of the smallest consequence to their preservation. They will 
survive me. Long, long after I am gone, while the lofty hills 
encompass this fair city, the offspring of those measures shall 
remain ; while the beautiful river that sweeps by its walls, shall 
continue to bear upon its proud bosom the wonders which the 
immortal genius of Fulton, with the blessings of Providence, 
has given ; while truth shall hold its sway among men, those 
systems will invigorate the industry, and animate the hopes, of 
the farmer, the mechanic, the manufacturer, and all other classes 
of our countrymen. 

People of Ohio here assembled, — mothers, — daughters, — 
sons and sires, when reclining on the peaceful pillow of repose, 
and communing with your own hearts, ask yourselves, if I ought 
to be the unremitting object of perpetual calumny? If, when the 
opponents of the late President gained the victory on the fourth 
of March, 1829, the war ought not to have ceased, quarters been 
granted, and prisoners released? Did not these opponents 
obtain all the honors, offices, and emoluments of Government; 
the power, wliicli they have frequently exercised, of r«wardino- 



238 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

■whom they pleased, and punishing whom they could ? Was not 
all this sufficient? Does it all avail not, while Mordecai, the 
Jew, stands at the king's gate ? 

I thank you, fellow-citizens, again and again, for the numerous I 
proofs you have given me of your attachment and confidence. 
And may your fine city continue to enjoy the advantages of the 
enterprise, industry, and public spirit of its mechanics and other 
inhabitants, until it rises in wealth, extent and prosperity, with 
the largest of our Atlantic capitals. 



I 



ON THE PUBLIC LANDS BILL. 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, DECEMBER 29, 1835. 



The public lands, from their wide extent and immense value, have been 
an interesting subject in our legislation. The reader will be interested to 
know the views of Mr. Clay upon the disposal to be made of them. The 
following is a speech upon the subject, delivered in the Senate, Decembel 
29, 1835. 



Although I find myself borne down by the severest affliction 
with which Providence has ever been pleased to visit me, I have 
thought that my private griefs ought not longer to prevent me 
from attempting, ill as I feel qualified, to discharge my public 
duties. And I now rise, in pursuance of the notice which lias 
been given, to ask leave to introduce a bill to appropriate, for a 
limited time, the proceeds of the sales of the public lands of the 
United States, and for granting land to certain States. 

I feel it incumbent on me to make a brief explanation of tha 
highly important measure which I have now the honor to pro- 
pose. The bill, which I desire to introduce, provides for the 
distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, in the years 
1833, 1834, 1835, 1836 and 1837, among the twenty-four States 
of the Union, and conforms substantially to that which passed 
in 1 833. It is, therefore, of a temporary character ; but if it 
shall be found to have salutary operation, it will be in the power 
of a futui'e Congress to give it an indefinite continuance ; and, 
if otherwise, it will expii'e by its own terms. In the event of 
war unfortunately breaking out with any foreign power, the bill 
is to cease, and the fund which it distributes is to be applied to 



I 2'!' I ) 



240 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

the prosecution of the war. The bill directs that ten per centum 
of the net proceeds of the public lands, sold within the limits 
of the seven new States, shall be first set apart for them, in addi- 
tion to the five per centum reserved by their several compacts 
with the United States ; and that the residue of the proceeds, 
whether from sales made in the States or Territories shall be 
divided among the twenty-four Slates, in proportion to their 
i-espective Federal population. In this respect the bill conforms 
to that which was introduced in 1 832. For one I should have 
been willino- to have allowed the new Slates twelve and a half 
instead of ten per centum, but as that was objected to by the 
President, in his veto message, and has been opposed in other 
quarters, I thought it best to restrict the allowance to the more 
modeiate sum. The bill also contains laroe and liberal o-rants 
of land to several of the new States, to place them upon an 
equality with others to which the bounty of Congress has been 
heretofore extended, and provides that, when other new States 
^hall be admitted into the Union, they shall receive their share 
of the common fund. 

The net amount of the sales of the public lands in the year 
] 833 was tlie sum of three millions nine hundred and sixty- 
seven thousand six hundred and eighty-two dollars and fifty-five 
cents ; in the year 1834 was four million eight hundred and fifty- 
seven thousand and six hundred dollars and sixty-nine cents ; 
and in the year 1835, according to actual receipts in the three 
first quarters and an estimate of the fourth, is twelve million two 
hundred and twenty-two thousand one hundred and twenty-one 
dollars and fifteen cents ; making an aggregate for the three years 
of twenty-one million forty-seven thousand four hundred and 
four dollars and thirty-nine cents. This ao-o-reoate is what the 
bill proposes to distribute and pay to the twenty-four States, on 
the first day of May, 1 836, upon the principles which I have 
stated. The difterence between the estimate made by the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury and that which I have offered of the pro- 
duct of the last quarter of this year, arises from my having 
taken, as the probable sum, one third of the total amount of 
tho three first (|uar((M's, and he some other conjectural sum. 



ON THE PUBLIC LANDS BILL. 241 

Deducting from the twenty-one million forty-seven thousand 
four hundred and four dollars and thirty-nine cents, the fifteen 
per centum to which the seven new States, according to the bill, 
will be first entitled, amounting to two million six hundred and 
twelve thousand three hundred and fifty dollars and eighteen 
cents, there will remain for distribution among the twenty-four 
States of the Union the sum of eighteen million four hundred 
and thirty-five thousand and fifty-four dollars and twenty-one 
cents. Of this sum the proportion of Kentucky will be nine 
hundred and sixty thousand nine hundred and forty-seven dol- 
lars and forty-one cents, of Virginia the sum of one million five 
hundred and eighty-one thousand six hundred and sixty-nine 
dollais and thirty-nine cents, of North Carolina nine hundred 
and eighty-eight thousand six hundred and thirty-two dollars 
and forty-two cents, and of Pennsylvania two million eighty-three 
thousand two hundred and thirty-thrje dollars and thirty-two 
cents. The proportion of Indiana, '.ncluding the fifteen per 
centum, will be eight hundred and fifty-five thousand five hun- 
dred and eighty-eight dollars and twenty-three cents, of Ohio 
one million six hundred and seventy-seven thousand one hun- 
dred and ten dollars and eighty-four cents, and of Mississippi 
nine hundred and fifty-eight thousand nine hundred and forty- 
five dollars and forty-two cents. And the proportions of all the 
twenty-four States are indicated in a table which I hold in my 
hand, prepared at my instance in the office of the Secretary of 
the Senate, and to which any Senator may have access. The 
grounds on which the extra allowance is_raade to the new States 
are, first, their complaint that all lands sold by the Federal Gov- 
ernment are five years exempted from State taxation ; secondly, 
that it is to be applied in such manner as will augment the value 
of the unsold public lands within them ; and lastly, their recent 
settlement. 

It may be recollected that a bill passed both Houses of Con- 
gi'ess, in the session which terminated on the third of March, 
1 833, for the distribution of the amount received from the public 
lands, upon the principles of that now offered. The President, 

in his message at the commencement of the previous session, 
21 



§42 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

had especially invited the attention of Congress to the subjec 
of the public lands; had adverted to their liberation from the 
pledge for the payment of the public debt ; and had intimated 
his readiness to concur in any disposal of them which might 
appear to Congress most conducive to the quiet, harmony, and 
genei'al interest of the American people. 

After such a message, the President's disapprobation of the 
Uill could not have been anticipated. It was presented to him 
on the second of March, 1833. It was not returned as the Con- 
stitution requires, but was retained by him after the expiration 
of his official term, and until the next session of Congress, 
which had no power to act upon it. It was understood and 
believed that, in anticipation of the passage, of the bill, the 
President had prepared objections to it, which he had intended 
to return with his neoaiive ; but he did not. If the bill had 
been returned, there w reason to believe that it would have 
passed, notwithstanding 'jhose objections. In the House, it liad 
been carried by a majority of more than two thirds. And, in 
the Senate, although there was not the majority on its passage, it 
was supposed that, in consequence of the passage of the com- 
promise bill, some of the Senators who had voted against the 
land bill had changed their views, and would have voted for it 
upon its return, and others had left the Senate. 

There are those who believe that the bill was unconstitution- 
ally retained by the President and is now the law of the land. 
But whether it be so or not, the general government holds the 
public domain in trust for the common benefit of all the States ; 
and it is, therefore, competent to provide by law that the ti'ustee 
shall make distribution of the proceeds of the three past years, 
as well as future years, among those entitled to the beneticial 
interest. The bill makes such a provision. And it is very 
remarkable, that the sum which it proposes to distribute is about 
the gross surplus, or balance, estimated in the Treasury on the 
first of January, 1836. When the returns of the last quarter of 
the year come in, it will probably be found that the surplus is 
larger than the sum which the bill distributes. But if it should 
not bo, there will remain the seven millions held in the Bank of 



ON THE PUBLIC LANDS BILL, 243 

the United States, applicable, as far as it may be received, to the 
service of the ensuing year. 

It -would be premature now to enter into a consideration of the 
probable revenue of future years ; but, at the proper time. I think 
it will not be difficult to show that, exclusive of what may be 
received from the public lands, it will be abundantly sufficient 
for all the economical purposes of Government, in a time of 
peace. And the bill, as I have already stated, provides for 
seasons of war. 1 wish to guard against all misconception by 
repeating, what I have heretofore several times said, that this 
bill is not founded upon any notion of a power in Congress to lay 
and collect taxes and distribute the amount among the several 
Slates. I think Congress possesses no such power, and has no 
right to exercise it until such amendment as that proposed by 
the senator from South Carolina (Mr. Calhoun) shall be adopted. 
But the bill rests on the basis of a clear and comprehensive grant 
of power to Congress over the tenitories and property of the 
United States in the Constitution, and upon express stipulations 
in the deeds of cession. 

Mr. President, I have ever regarded, with feelings of the pro- 
foundest regret, the decision which the President of the United 
States felt himself induced to make on the bill of 1833. If i( 
had been his pleasure to approve it, the heads of departments 
would not now be taxing their ingenuity to find out useless 
objects of expenditures, or objects which may be well postponed 
to a more distant day. If the bill had passed, about twenty mil- 
lions of dollars would have been, during the three last years, in 
the hands of the several States, applicable by them to the benefi- 
cent purposes of internal improvement, education, or coloniza- 
tion. What immense benefits might not haA'e been diffused 
throughout the land by the active employment of that laro-e 
sum? What new channels of commerce and communication 
might not have been opened ? What industry stimulated, what 
labor rewarded ? How many youthful minds might have re- 
ceived the blessings of education and knowledge, and been 
rescued from ignorance, vice, and ruin ? How many descend- 
ants (if Africa might liave been transpoiled from a counfi-y where 



244 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY, 

they never can enjoy political or social equality, to the native 
land of their fathers, where no impediment exists to their attain- 
ment of the highest degree of elevation, intellectual, social, and 
political ? Where they might have been successful instruments, 
in the hands of God, to spread the religion of his son, and to lay 
the foundations of civil liberty ! 

And, sir, when we institute a comparison between what might 
have been effected, and what has been in fact done, with that 
large amount of national treasure, our sensations of regret, on 
account of the fate of the bill of 1833, are still keener. Instead 
of its being dedicated to the beneficent uses of the whole people, 
and our entire country, it has been an object of scrambling 
among local corporations, and locked up in the vaults, or loaned 
out by the directors of a few of them, who are not under the 
slightest responsibility to the government or the people of the 
United States. Instead of liberal, enlightened, and national pur- 
poses, it has been partially applied to local, limited and selfish 
uses. Applied to increase the semi-annual dividends of favorite 
stockholders in favorite banks ! Twenty millions of the national 
treasure are scattered in parcels among petty corporations ; and 
while they are growling over the fragments and greedy for more, 
the secretaries are brooding on schemes for squandering the 
whole. 

But although Ave have lost three precious years, the Secretary 
of the Treasury tells us that the principal is yet safe, and much 
good may be still achieved with it. Tiie general government, 
by an extraordinary exercise of executive power, no longer 
affords aid to any new works of internal improvement. Although 
it sprang from the Union, and can not survive the Union, it no. 
longer engages in any public improvement to perpetuate the 
existence of the Union. It is but justice to it to acknoAvledge, 
that, with the co-operation of the public-spirited State of Mary- 
land, it effected one national road having that tendency. But 
the spirit of improvement pervades the land, in every variety of 
form, active, vigorous, and enterprising, wanting pecuniary aid 
as well as intelligent direction. The States have undertaken 
what the gciuM-al government is prevented from accomplishing. 



ON THE PUBLIC LANDS BILL. 245 

They are strengthening the Union by various lines of commu- 
nication thrown across and through the mountains. New York 
has completed one great chain. Pennsylvania another, bolder 
in conception and far more arduous in the execution. Vii-ginia 
has a similar work in progress, worthy of all her enterprise and 
energy. A fourth further south, where the parts of the Union 
are too loosely connected, has been projected, and it can certainly 
be executed Avith the supplies which this bill affords, and per- 
haps not without them. 

This bill passed, and these and other similar undertakings 
completed, we may indulge the patriotic hope that our Union 
will be bound by ties and interests that render it indissoluble. 
As the general government withholds all direct agency from 
these truly national works, and from all new objects of internal im- 
provement, ought it not to yield to the States, what is their own, 
the amount received from the public lands? It would thus but 
execute faitlifully a trust expressly created by the original deeds 
of cession, or resulting from the treaties of acquisition. With 
this ample resource, every desirable object of improvement, in 
every part of our extensive country, may, in due time, be accom- 
plished. Placing this exhaustless fund in the hands of the sev- 
eral members of the confederacy, their common federal head 
may address them in the glowing language of the British 
bard, and 

'Bid harbors open, public ways extend. 
Bid temples worthier of the God ascend. 
Bid the broad arch the dangerous flood contain, 
The mole projecting break the roaring main. 
Back to his bounds their subject sea command, 
And roll obedient rivers tlirough the land." 

The affair of the public lands was forced upon me. In the 
session of 1831 and 1832 a motion from a quarter politically 
unfriendly to me, was made to refer it to the committee on man- 
ufactures, of which I was a member. I strenuously opposed 
the reference. I remonstrated, I protested, I entreated, I im- 
plored. It was in vain (hat I insisted that the committee on the 



246 SPEECHES OF HENEY CLAY. 

public lands Avas the regular slanding coramiKee to which the 
reference should be made. It was in vain that I contended that 
the public lands and domestic manufactures were subjects abso- 
lutely incongruous. The unnatural alliance Avas ordered by the 
vote of a majority of the Senate. I felt that a personal embar- 
rassment was intended me. I felt that the design was to place 
in mj hands a many-edged instrument, which I could not touch 
without being wounded. Nevertheless I subdued all my repug- 
nance, and I engaged assiduously in the task which had been so 
unkindly assigned me. This, or a similar bill, was the offspring 
of my deliberations. When reported, the report accompanying 
it was referred by the same majority of the Senate to the very 
committee on the public lands to which. I had unsuccessfully 
sought to have the subject originally assigned, for the avowed 
purpose of obtaining a counteracting report. But, in spite of all 
opposition, it passed the Senate at that session. At the next, 
both Houses of Consfress. 

I confess, I feel anxious for the fate of this measure, less on 
account of any agency I have had in proposing it, as I hope and 
believe, than from a firm, sincere, and thorough conviction, that 
no one measure, ever presented to the councils of the nation, 
was fraught with so much unmixed good, and could exert such 
powerful and enduring influence in the preservation of the 
Union itself, and upon some of its highest interests. If I can 
be instrumental, in any degree, in the adoption of it, I shall 
enjoy, in that retirement into which I hope shortly to enter, a 
heart-feeling satisfaction and a lasting consolation. I shall carry 
there no regrets, no complaints, no reproaches on my own 
account. When I look back upon my humble origin, left an 
orphan too young to have been conscious of a father's smiles 
and caresses, with a widowed mother, surrounded by a numer- 
ous oft'spring, in the midst of pecuniary embarrassments, without 
a regular education, without fortune, without friends, without 
patrons, I have reason to be satisfied with my public career. 
I ought to be thankful for the liigh places and honors to which 
I have been called by the favor and partiality of my country- 
men, and I am thankful and grateful. And I shall take with 



ON THE PUBLIC LANDS BILL. 247 

me the ploasing consciousness, that, in whatever station I have 
been placed, I have earnestly and honestly labored to justify 
their confidence by a faithful, fearless, and zealous discharge 
of my public duties. Pardon these personal allusions. I make 
the motion of which notice has been given. 



PETITIONS FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAYEPiY. 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 7, 1839. 



Me. Clay's views upon the Abolition of Slavery may be learned from 
the following extract from a speech delivered upon the occasion of the 
presentation of several Abolition petitions. After indicating various in- 
surmountable difficulties in the way of immediate emancipation, he con- 
tinues : 



I HAVE received, Mr. President, a petition to the Senate and 
House of Representatives of the United States, which I wish to 
present to the Senate. It is signed by several hundred inhabit- 
ants of the District of Columbia, and chiefly of the city of 
Washington. Among them I recognize the name of the highly 
esteemed mayor of the city, and other respectable names, some 
of which are personally and well known to me. They express 
their regret that the subject of the Abolition of Slavery within the 
District of Columbia continues to be pressed upon the consider- 
ation of Congress by inconsiderate and misguided individuals 
in other parts of the United States. They state, that they do 
not desire the abolition of Slavery within the District, even if 
Congress possess the very questionable power of abolishing it, 
without the consent of the people whose interests would be im- 
mediately and directly affected by the measure ; that it , is a 
question solely between the people of the District and their only 
constitutional Legislature, purely municipal, and one in which 
no exterior influence or interest can justly interfere ; that if, at 
any future period, the people of this District should desire the 
abolition of Slavery within it, they will doubtless make their 



(218) 



ABOLITION PETITIONS. 249 

wishes known, when it will be time enough to take the matter 
into consideration ; that they do not, on this occasion, present 
themselves to Congress because they are slaveholders ; many of 
them are not; some of them are conscientiously opposed to 
Slavery ; but they appear because they justly respect the rights 
of those who own that description of property, and because they 
entertain a deep conviction that the continued agitation of the 
question by those who have no right to interfere with it, has an 
injurious influence on the peace and tranquillity of the commu- 
nity, and upon the well-being- and happiness of those who are 
held in subjection ; they finally protest as well against the unau- 
thorized intervention of which they complain, as against any 
legislation on the part of Congress in compliance therewith. 
But as I wish these respectable petitioners to be themselves heard, 
I request that their petition may be read. [It was read accord- 
ingly, and Mr. Clay proceeded.] I am informed by the com- 
mittee which requested me to offer this petition, and believe, that 
it expresses the almost unanimous sentiments of the people of the 
District of Columbia. 

Tlie performance of this service affords me a legitimate oppor- 
tunity, of which, with the permission of the Senate, I mean now 
to avail myself, to say something, not only on the particular ob- 
jects of the petition, but upon the great and interesting subject 
with which it is intimately associated. 

It is well known to the Senate, that I have thought that the 
most judicious course Avith abolition petitions has not been of 
late pursued by Congress. I have believed that it would have 
been wisest to receive and refer them, without opposition, and 
report against their object in a calm, and dispassionate, and 
argumentative appeal to the good sense of the whole community. 
It has been supposed, however, by a majority of Congress, that 
it was most expedient either not to receive the petitions at all, or, 
if formally received, not to act definitively upon them. There is 
no substantial difference between these opposite opinions, since 
both look to an absolute rejection of the prayer of the petitioners. 
But there is a great difference in the form of proceeding ; and, 
Mr. President, some experience in the conduct of human affairs 



250 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

has taught me to believe, tliat a neglect to observe established 
forms is often attended with more mischievous consequences than 
the intliction of a positive injury. We all know that, even in 
private life, a violation of the existing usages and ceremonies of 
society can not take place without serious prejudice. I fear, sir, 
that the Abolitionists have acquired a considerable apparent force 
by blending with the object which they have in view a collateral 
and totally different question, arising out of an alleged viola- 
tion of the right of petition. I know full well, and take great 
pleasure in testifying, that nothing was remoter from the intention 
of the majority of the Senate, from which I differed, than to vio- 
late the right 'of petition in any case in which, according to its 
judgment, that right could be constitutionally exercised, or 
where the object of the petition could be safely or properly 
granted. Still it must be owned, that the Abolitionists have seized 
hold of the fact of the treatment which their petitions have 
received in Congress, and made injurious impressions upon the 
minds of a large portion of the community. This, I think, might 
have been avoided by the course which I should have been glad 
to see pursued. 

And I desire now, Mr. President, to advert to some of those 
topics which I think might have been usefully embodied in a 
report by a committee of the Senate, and which, I am persuaded, 
■would have checked the progress, if it had not altogether arrested 
the efforts of Abolition. I am sensible, sir, that this work would 
have been accomplished with much greater ability and with much 
happier effect; under the auspices of a committee, than it can be 
by me. But, anxious as I always am to contribute whatever is 
in my power to the harmony, concord, and happiness of this 
great people, I feel myself irresistibly impelled to do whatever is 
in my power, incompetent as I feel myself to be, to dissuade the 
l)ublic from continuing to agitate a subject fraught with the most 
direful consequences. 

There are three classes of persons opposed, or apparently op- 
posed, to the continued existence of Slavery in the United States. 
The first are those who, from sentiments of philanthropy and 
humanity, are conscientiously opposed to the existence of Slavery, 



ABOLITION PETITIONS. 251 

but who are no less opposed, at the same time, to any distui-bance 
of the peace and tranquillity of the Union, or the infringement of 
the powers of the Slates composing- the confederacy. In this 
class may be comprehended that peaceful and exemplarySociety 
of "Friends," one of whose established maxims is, an abhor- 
rence of war in all its forms, and the cultivation of peace and 
good-will among mankind. The next class consists of apparent 
Abolitionists ; that is, those who, having been persuaded that the 
right of petition has been violated by Congress, co-operate with 
the Abolitionists for the sole purpose of asserting and vindicating 
that right. And the third class are the real ultra Abolitionists, 
who are resolved to persevere in the pursuit of their object at 
all hazards, and without regard to any consequences, however 
calamitous they may be. With them the rights of property are 
nothing ; the deficiency of the powers of the general government 
is nothing; the acknowledged and incontestable powers of the 
States ai'e nothing ; civil war, a dissolution of the Union, and 
the overthrow of a government in which are concenti-ated the 
fondest hopes of the civilized world, are nothing. A single idea 
has taken possession of their minds, and onward they pursue it, 
overlooking all barriers, reckless and regai'dless of all conse- 
quences. With this class, the immediate abolition of Slavery 
in the District of Columbia, and in the Territory of Florida, the 
prohibition of the removal of slaves from State to State, and the 
refusal to admit any new State, comprising within its limits the 
institution of domestic Slavery, are but so many means con- 
ducing to the accomplishment of the ultimate but perilous end 
at which they avowedly and boldly aim ; are but so many short 
stages in the long and bloody road to the distant goal at which 
they would finally arrive. Their purpose is Abolition, universal 
Abolition ; peaceably if it can, forcibly if it must be. Their 
object is no longer concealed by the thinnest vail ; it is avowed 
and proclaimed. Utterly destitute of constitutional or other 
rightful power, living in totally distinct communities, ao alien to 
the communities in which the subject on which they would 
operate resides, so far as conceins political power over that 
subject, as if they lived in Africa or Asia, they nevertheless 



^ 



252 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

promulgate to the world their purpose to be, to manumit forthwith, 
and without compensation, and without moral preparation, three 
millions of negro slaves, under jurisdiction altogether separated 
from those under which they live. I have said, that immediate 
abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia and the Terri- 
tory of Florida, and the exclusion of new States, were only means 
toward the attainment of a much more important end. Unfor- 
tunately they are not the only means. Another, and much more 
lamentable one is that which this class is endeavoring to employ, 
of arraying one portion against another portion of the Union. 
With that view, in all their leading prints and publications, the 
alleged horrors of Slavery are depicted in the most glowing 
and exaggerated colors, to excite the imaginations and stimulate 
the rage of the people in the free States, against the people in 
the slave States. The slaveholder is held up and repi-esented 
as the most atrocious of human being-s. Advertisements of 
fugitive slaves and of slaves to be sold, are carefully collected 
and blazoned forth, to infuse a spirit of detestation and hatred 
against one entire, and the largest, section of the Union. And, 
like a notorious agitator upon another theater, they would hunt 
down and proscribe from the pale of civilized society, the 
inhabitants of that entire section. Allow me, Mr. President, to 
say, that while I recognize in the jtxstly wounded feelings of the 
Minister of the United States at the Court of St. James, much 
to excuse the notice which he was provoked to take of that 
agitator, in my humble opinion, he would better have consulted 
the dignity of his station and of his country in treating him with 
contemptuous silence. He would exclude us from European 
society, — he who himself can only obtain a contraband admis- 
sion, and is received with scornful repugnance into it ! If he 
be no more desirous of our society than we are of his, he may 
rest assured that a state of eternal non-intercourse will exist be- 
tween us. Yes, sir, I think the American Minister would have 
best pursued the dictates of true dignity, by regarding the lan- 
guage of the member of the British House of Commons as the 
malignant ravings of the plunderer of his own country, and the 
libeler of a foreign and kindred people. 



ABOLITION PETITIONS. 253 

But the means to which I have already adverted are not the 
only ones which this third class of ultra-abolitionists are employ- 
ing to effect their ultimate end. They began their operations by 
professing to employ only persuasive means in appealing to the 
humanity, and enlightening the understandings, of the slave- 
holdino- portion of the Union. If there were some kindness in 
this avowed motive, it must be acknowledged that there was 
rather a presumptuous display also of an assumed superiority in 
intelligence and knowledge. For some time they continued to 
make these appeals to our duty and our interest ; but impatient 
with the sloAv influence of their logic upon our stupid minds, 
they recently resolved to change their system of action. To the 
agency of their powers of persuasion, they noAV propose to sub- 
stitute the powers of the ballot-box ; and he must be blind to 
what is passing before us, who does not perceive that the inevita- 
ble tendency of their proceedings is, if these should be found 
insufficient, to invoke, finally, the more potent powers of the 
bayonet. 

Mr. President, it is at this alarming stage of the proceedings 
of the ultra-abolitionists, that I would seriously invite every con- 
siderate man in the country solemnly to pause, and deliberately 
to reflect, not merely on our existing posture, but upon that 
dreadful precipice down which they would hurry us. It is 
because these ultra-abolitionists have ceased to employ the 
instruments of reason and persuasion, have made their cause 
political, and have appealed to the ballot-box, that I am induced, 
upon this occasion, to address you. 

There have been three epochs in the history of our country, 
at which the spirit of Abolition displayed itself. The first was 
immediately after the formation of the present federal govern- 
ment. When the Constitution was about going into operation, 
its powers were not well understood by the community at large, 
and remained to be accurately interpreted and defined. At that 
period numerous abolition societies were formed, comprising not 
merely the Society of Friends, but many other good men. Peti- 
tions were presented to Congress, praying for the abolition of 
Slavery. They were received without serious opposition, referred, 



254 SPEECHES OF IIENEY CLAY. 

and reported upon by a committee. The report stated, that 
the general government had no power to abolish Slavery, as 
it existed in the several States, and that these States themselves 
had exclusive jurisdiction over the subject. The report was 
generally acquiesced in, and satisfaction and tranquillity ensued ; 
the abolition societies thereafter limitino- their exertions, in 
respect to the black population, to offices of humanity within the 
scope of existing laws. 

The next period when the subject of Slavery, and Abolition 
incidentally, was brought into notice and discussion, was that on 
the memorable occasion of the admission of the State of Missouri 
into the Union. The struo-o-le Avas lono- stienuous, and fearful. 
It is too recent to make it necessary to do more than merely 
advert to it, and to say, that it was finally composed by one of 
those compromises characteristic of our institutions, and of which 
the Constitution itself is the most signal instance. 

The third is that in which we now find ourselves. Various 
causes, Mr. President, have contributed to produce the existing 
excitement on the subject of Abolition. The principal one, per- 
haps, is the example of British emancipation of the slaves in the 
islands adjacent to our country. Such is the similarity in laws, 
in language, in institutions, and in common origin, between 
Great Britain and the United States, that no great measure of 
national policy can be adopted in the one country without pro- 
ducing a considerable deo-ree of influence in the other. Confound- 

o o 

ing the totally different cases together, of the powers of the British 
Parliament and those of the Congress of the United States, and 
the totally different situations of the British "West India islands, 
and the slaves in the sovereign and independent States of this 
confederacy, superficial men have inferred, from the undecided 
British experiment, the practicability of the abolition of Slavery 
in these States. The powers of the British Parliament are un- 
limited, and are oflen described to be omnipotent. The powers 
of the American Congress, on the contrary, are few, cautiously 
limited, scrupulously excluding all that are not granted, and, 
above all, carefully and absolutely excluding all power over the 
existence or continuance of Slavery in the several States. The 



ABOLITION PETITIONS. 255 

slaves, too, upon which British legislation operated, were not in 
the bosom of the kingdom, but in remote and feeble colonies 
having no voice in Parliament. The West India slaveholder 
was neither represented nor representative in that Parliament. 
And while I most fervently wish complete success to the British 
experiment of West India emancipation, I confess, that I have 
fearful forebodings of a disastrous termination of it. Whatever 
it may be, I think it must be admitted, that, if the British Par- 
liament treated the West India slaves as freemen, it also treated 
the West India freemen as slaves. If, instead of O^hese slaves 
being separated by a wide ocean from the parent country, three 
or four millions of African negro slaves had been dispersed 
over England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and their owners 
had been members of the British Parliament — a case which 
would have presented some analogy to that of our own country — 
does any one believe that it would have been expedient or prac- 
ticable to have emancipated them, leaving them to remain, with 
all their imbittered feelings, in the united kingdom, boundless as 
the powers of the British Parliament are? 

Mr. President, it is not true, and I rejoice that it is not true, 
that either of the two great parties in this country has any 
designs or aim at Abolition. I should deeply lament if it were 
true. I should consider, if it were true, that the danger to the 
stability of our system would be infinitely greater than any which 
does, I hope, actually exist. While neither party can be, I think, 
justly accused of any abolition tendency or pui'pose, both have 
profiled, and both have been injured, in particular localities, by 
the accession or abstraction of abolition support. If the account 
were fairly stated, I believe the party to which I am opposed has 
profited much more, and been injured much less, tlian that to 
which I belong. But I am far, for that reason, from beino- dis 
posed to accuse our adversaries of being Abolitionists. 

And now, Mr. President, if it were possible to overcome the 
insurmountable obstacles which lie in the way of immediate 
abolition, let us briefly contemplate some of the consequences 
which would inevitably ensue. One of these has been occa- 
sionally alluded to in llie pi'ogress of these remarks. It is liie 



256 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

struggle which would instantaneously arise between the two 
races in most of the southern and southwestern States. And 
what a dreadful struggle would it not be ! Imbittered by all 
the recollections of the past, by the unconquerable prejudices 
which would prevail between the two races, and stimulated by 
all the hopes and fears of the future, it would be a contest in 
which the extermination of the blacks, or their ascendency over 
the whites, would be the sole alternative. Prior to the conclu- 
sion, or during the progress of such a contest, vast numbers, 
probably, of the black race would migrate into the free States; 
and what effect would such a migration have upon the laboring 
classes in those States ! 

Now the distribution of labor in the United States is geographi- 
cal ; the free laborers occupying one side of the line, and the 
slave laborers the other ; each class pursuing its own avocations 
almost altogether unmixed with the other. But on the supposi- 
tion of immediate abolition, the black class, migrating into the 
free States, would enter into competition with the white class, 
diminishing the wages of their labor, and augmenting the hard- 
ships of their condition. 

This is not all. The Abolitionists strenuously oppose all sep- 
aration of the two races. I confess to you, sir, that I have seen 
with regret, grief, and astonishment, their resolute opposition to 
the project of colonization. No scheme was ever presented to the 
acceptance of man, which, whether it be entirely practicable or 
not, is characterized by more unmixed humanity and benevolence, 
than that of transporting, with their own consent, the free people 
of color in the United States to the land of their ancestors. It has 
the powerful recommendation, that whatever it does, is good ; 
and, if it effects nothing, it inflicts no one evil or mischief upon 
any portion of our society. There is no necessary hostility 
between the objects of Colonization and Abolition. Colonization 
deals only with the free man of color, and that with his owvr free, 
voluntary consent. It has nothing to do with Slavery. It dis- 
turbs no man's property, seeks to impair no power in the slave 
States, nor to attribute any to the general government. All its 
action and all its ways and means are voluntary, depending upon 



ABOLITION PETITIONS. 257 

the blessing of Providence, which hitherto has graciously smiled 
upon it. And yet, beneficent and harmless as colonization is, 
no portion of the people of the United States denounces it with 
60 much persevering zeal, and such unmixed bitterness, as do 
the Abolitionists. 

They put themselves in direct opposition to any separation 
whatever between the two races. They would keep them forever 
pent up together within the same limits, perpetuating their ani- 
mosities and constantly endangering the peace of the community. 
They proclaim, indeed, that color is nothing ; that the organic 
and characteristic differences between the two races ought to be 
entirely overlooked and disregarded. And, elevating themselves 
to a sublime but impracticable philosophy, they would teach us 
to eradicate all the repugnances of our nature, and to take to our 
bosoms and our boards, the black man as we do the white, on 
the same footing of equal social condition. Do they not per- 
ceive that in thus confoundino; all the distinctions which God 
himself has made, they arraign the wisdom and goodness of 
Providence itself? It has been his divine pleasure to make the 
black man black, and the white man white, and to distinguish 
them by other repulsive constitutional differences. It is not 
necessary for me to maintain, nor shall I endeavor to prove, that 
it was any part of his divine intention that the one race should 
be held in perpetual bondage by the other ; but this I will say, 
that those whom he has created different, and has declared, by 
their physical structure and color, ought to be kept asunder, 
should not be brought together by any process whatever of un- 
natural amalgamation. 

But if the dangers of the civil contest which I have supposed 
could be avoided, separation or amalgamation is the only peaceful 
alternative, if it were possible to effectuate the project of Aboli- 
tion. The Abolitionists oppose all colonization, and it irresistibly 
follows, whatever they may protest or declare, that tl.ey are in 
favor of amalo-amation. And who are to brino- about this amal- 
gamation ? I have heard of none of these ultra-abolitionists 
furnishing in their own families or persons examples of inter- 
marriage. Who is to begin it? Is it their purpose not only to 
22 



258 SPEECHES of henry clay. 

create a pinching competition between black labor and wliite 
labor, but do they intend also to contaminate the industrious and 
laborious classes of society at the North by a revolting admixture 
of the l)lack element ? 

It is frequently asked, what is to become of the African race 
among us ? Are they forever to remain in bondage ? That 
question was asked more than a half a century ago. It has been 
answered by fifty years of prosperity but little checkered from 
this cause. It will be repeated fifty or a hundred years hence. 
The true answer is, that the same Providence who has hitherto 
guided and governed us, and averted all serious evils from the 
existing relation between the two races, will guide and govern 
our posterity. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof. We 
have hitherto, with that blessing, taken care of ourselves. Pos- 
terity will find the means of its own preservation and prosperity. 
It is only in the most direful event which can befall this people, 
that this great interest, and all other of our greatest interests, 
would be put in jeopardy. Although in particular districts, the 
black population is gaining upon the white, it only constitutes 
one fifth of the whole population of the United States. And 
taking the aggregate of the two races, the European is constantly, 
though slowly, gaining upon the African portion. This fact is 
demonstrated by the periodical returns of our population. Let 
us cease, then, to indulge in gloomy forebodings about the im- 
penetrable future. But, if we may attempt to lift the vail, and 
contemplate what lies beyond it, I, too, have ventured on a 
speculative theory, with which I will now trouble you, but which 
has been published to the world. According to that, in the pro- 
gress of time, some one hundred and fifty or two hundred years 
hence, but few vestiges of the black race will remain among our 
posterity. 

Mr. President, at the period of the formation of our Constitu- 
tion, and afterward, our patriotic ancestors apprehended danger 
to the Union from two causes. One was, the Alleghany moun- 
tains, dividing the waters which floAV into the Atlantic ocean 
from those which found their outlet in the Gulf of Mexico. 
They seemed to present a natural separation. That danger has 



ABOLITION PETITIONS. 259 

vanished before the noble achievements of the spirit of internal 
improvement, and the immortal genius of Fulton. And now, 
nowhere is found a more loyal attachment to the Union, than 
among" those very western people, Avho, it was apprehended, 
would be the first to burst its ties. 

The other cause, domestic Slavery, happily the sole remaining 
cause which is likely to distuib our harmony, continues to exist. 
It was this, which created the greatest obstacle, and the most 
anxious solicitude in the deliberations of the Convention that 
adopted the general Constitution. And it is this subject that 
has ever been regarded with the deepest anxiety by all who are 
sincerely desirous of the permanency of our Union. The father 
of his country, in his last affecting and solemn appeal to his 
fellow-citizens, deprecated, as a most calamitous event, the 
geographical divisions which it might produce. The Conven- 
tion wisely left to the several States the power over the institu- 
tion of Slavery, as a power not necessary to the plan of Union 
which it devised, and as one with which the general govern- 
ment could not be invested without planting the seeds of certain 
destruction. There let it remain undisturbed by any unhallowed 
hand. 

Sir, I am not in the habit of speaking lightly of the possibility 
of dissolving this happy Union. The Senate knows that I have 
deprecated allusions, on ordinary occasions, to that direful event. 
The country will testify, that, if there be any thing in the history 
of my public career worthy of recollection, it is the truth and 
sincerity of my ardent devotion to its lasting preservation. But 
we should be false in our allegiance to it, if we did not discrimi- 
nate between the imaginary and real dangers by which it may be 
assailed. Abolition should no lonq;er be regarded as an imaofin- 
ary danger. The Abolitionists, let me suppose, succeed in their 
present aim of uniting the inhabitants of the free States, as one 
man, against the inhabitants of the slave States. Union on the 
One side will beget union on the other. And this process of 
reciprocal consolidation will be attended with all the violent pre- 
judices, imbittered passions, and implacable animosities, which 
ever degraded or deformed human nature. A virtual dissolution 



260 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

of the Union will have taken place, while the forms of its exist- 
ence remain. The most valuable element of union, mutual kind- 
ness, the feelings of sympathy, the fraternal bonds, which now 
happily unite us, will have been extinguished forever. One 
section will stand in menacing and hostile array against the other. 
The collision of opinion will be quickly followed by the clash of 
arms. I Avill not attempt to describe scenes which now happily 
lie concealed from our view. Abolitionists themselves would 
shrink back in dismay and horror at the contemplation of deso- 
lated fields, conflagrated cities, murdered inhabitants, and the 
overthrow of the fairest fabric of human government that ever 
rose to animate the hopes of civilized man. Nor should these 
Abolitionists flatter themseh^es that, if they can succeed in their 
object of uniting the people of the free States, they will enter the 
contest with a numerical superiority that must insure victory. 
All history and experience prove the hazard and uncertainty of 
war. And we ai-e admonished by holy writ, that the race is not 
to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. But if they were to 
conquer, whom would they conquer ? A foreign foe ; one who 
had insulted our flag, invaded our shores, and laid our country 
waste ? No, sir ; no, sir. It would be a conquest without 
laurels, without glory ; a self, a suicidal conquest ; a conquest 
of brothers over brothers, achieved by one over another portion 
of the descendants of common ancestors, who, nobly pledging 
their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, had fought aud 
bled, side by side, in many a hard battle on land and ocean, 
severed our country from the British crown, and established our 
national independence. 

The inhabitants of the slave States are sometimes accused by 
their Northern brethern with displaying too much rashness and 
sensibility to the operations and proceedings of Abolitionists. 
But, before they can be rightly judged, there should be a reversal 
of conditions. Let me suppose that the people of the slave Slates 
were to form societies, subsidize presses, make large pecuniary 
contributions, send forth numerous missionaries throughout all 
their own borders, and enter into machinations to burn the beau- 
tiful capitals, destroy the productive manufactories, and sink in 



ABOLITION PETITIONS. 261 

the ocean the gallant ships of the Northern States. Would these 
incendiary proceedings be regarded as neighborly and friendly, 
and consistent with the fraternal sentiments which should ever 
be cherished by one portion of the Union toward another? 
Would they excite no emotion ? occasion no manifestations of 
dissatisfaction, nor lead to any acts of retaliatory violence ? But 
the supposed case falls far short of the actual one in a most 
essential circumstance. In no contingency could these capitals, 
manufactories and ships, rise in rebellion, and massacre inhabit- 
ants of the Northern States. 

I am, Mr. President, no friend of Slavery. The searcher of 
all hearts knows that every pulsation of mine beats high and 
strong in the cause of civil liberty. Wherever it is safe and 
practicable, I desire every portion of the human family in the 
enjoyment of it. But I prefer the liberty of my own country to 
that of any other people ; and the liberty of my own race to that 
of any other race. The liberty of the descendants of Africa in 
the United Slates is incompatible with the safety and liberty of 
the European descendants. There Slavery forms an exception, — 
an exception resulting from a stern and inexorable necessity, — to 
the general liberty in the United States. We did not originate, 
nor are we responsible for this necessity. Their liberty, if it 
were possible, could only be established by violating the incon- 
testable powers of the States, and subverting the Union. And 
beneath the ruins of the Union would be buried, sooner or later, 
the liberty of both races. 

But if one dark spot exists on our political horizon, is it not 
obscured by the bright and effulgent and cheering light that 
beams all around lis ? Was ever a people before so blessed as 
we are, if true to ourselves ? Did ever any other nation contain 
within its bosom so many elements of prosperity, of greatness, 
and of glory ? Our only real danger lies ahead, conspicuous, 
elevated and visible. It was clearly discerned at the commence- 
ment, and distinctly seen throughout our whole career. Shall 
we wantonly run upon it, and destroy all the glorious anticipa- 
tions of the high destiny that awaits us ? I beseech the Aboli- 
tionists themselves, solemnly to pause in their mad and fatal 



262 SPEECHES OF HENEY CLAY. 

course. Amid the infinite variety of objects of humanity and 
benevolence which invite the employment of their energies, let 
them select some one more harmless, that does not threaten to 
deluge our country in blood. I call upon that small portion of 
the clergy, vphich has lent itself to these wild and ruinous 
schemes, not to forget the holy nature of the divine mission of 
the founder of our religion, and to profit by his peaceful exam- 
ples. I entreat that portion of my countrywomen who have 
given their countenance to abolition, to remember, that they are 
ever most loved and honored when moving in their own appro- 
priate and delightful sphere ; and to reflect that the ink which 
they shed in subscribing with their fair hands abolition petitions, 
may prove but the prelude to the shedding of the blood of their 
brethren. I adjure all the inhabitants of the free States to rebuke 
and discountenance, by their opinion and their example, measures 
which must inevitably lead to the most calamitous consequences. 
And let us all, as countrymen, as friends, and as brothers, cher- 
ish, in unfading memory, the motto which bore our ancestors 
triumphantly through all the trials of the revolution, as, if ad- 
hered to, it will conduct their posterity through all that may, in 
the dispensations of Providence, be reserved for them. 



ON THE BANK VETO. 

IN REPLY TO 

THE SPEECH OF MR. RIVES, OF YIRGIJnA, OX THE EXECUTIYE MESSAGE 
CONTAINING THE PRESIDENT'S OBJECTIONS TO THE BANK BILL. 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, AUGUST 19, 1841. 

Mr. Rives having concluded his remarks, 

Mr. Clay rose in rejoinder. I have no desire, said he, to pro- 
long this unpleasant discussion ; but I must say that I heard 
Avith great surprise and regret the closing remark, especially, of 
the honorable gentleman from Virginia, as I did many of those 
which preceded it. That gentleman stands in a peculiar situa- 
tion. I found him several years ago in the half-way house, 
where he seems afraid to remain, and from which he is yet 
unwilling to go. I had thought, after the thorough riddling 
which the roof of the house had received in the breaking up of 
the pet-bank system, he would have fled somewhere else for 
refuge ; but there he still stands, solitary and alone, shivering 
and pelted by the pitiless storm. The sub-treasury is repealed ; 
the pet-bank system is abandoned ; the United States Bank bill 
is vetoed ; and now, when there is as complete and perfect a 
reunion of the purse and the sword in the hands of the Execu- 
tive as ever there was under General Jackson or Mr. Van Buren, 
the senator is for doing nothing! The senator is for going- 
home, leaving the treasury and the country in their lawless con- 
dition ! Yet no man has heretofore more than he has, deplored 
and deprecated a state of things so utterly unsafe, and repuo-nant 
to all just precautions, indicated alike by sound theory and 
experience in free governments. And the senator talks to us 
about applying to the wisdom of practical men, in respect to 

( 203 ) 



264 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

banking, and advises further deliberations ! Why, I should sup- 
pose that we are at present in the very best situation to act upon 
the subject. Beside the many painful years we have had for 
deliberation, we have been near three months almost exclusively 
engrossed with the very subject itself. We have heard all 
manner of facts, statements, and arguments in any way con- 
nected with it. We understand, it seems to me, all we ever can 
learn or comprehend about a national bank. And we have, at 
least, some conception, too, of what sort of one will be acceptable 
at the other end of the Avenue. Yet now, with a vast majority 
of the people of the entire country crying out to us for a bank ; 
with the people throughout the whole valley of the Mississippi 
rising in their majesty, and demanding it as indispensable to 
their well-being, and pointing to their losses, their sacrifices, and 
their sufterino-s, for the want of such an institution ; in such a 
state of things, we are gravely and coldly told by the honorable 
senator from Virginia, that we had best go home, leaving the 
purse and the sword in the uncontrolled possession of the Presi- 
dent:, and, above all things, never to make a party bank ! Why, 
sir, does he, with all his knowledge of the conflicting opinions 
which prevail here, and have prevailed, believe that we ever can 
make a bank but by the votes of one party who are in favor of it, 
in opposition to the votes of another party against it ? I depre- 
cate this expression of opinion from that gentleman the more, 
because, although the honorable senator professes not to know 
the opinions of the President, it certainly does turn out in the 
sequel, that there is a most remarkable coincidence between those 
opinions and his own ; and he has, on the present occasion, de- 
fended the motives and the course of the* President with all the 
solicitude and all the fervent zeal of a member of his privy 
council There is a rumor abroad, that a cabal exists, — a new 
sort of kitchen cabmet, — whose object is the dissolution of the 
regular cabinet, the dissolution of the whig party, the dispersion 
of Congress without accomplishing any of the great purposes of 
the extra session, and a total change, in fact, in the whole face 
of our political affairs. I hope, and I persuade myself, that the 
honorable senator is not, can not be, one of the component 



ON THE BANK VETO. 265 

members of such a cabal ; but I must saj', that there has been dis- 
played by the honorable senator to-day a predisposition, astonish- 
ing and inexplicable, to misconceive almost all of what I have 
said, and a perseverance, after repeated corrections, in misunder- 
standing, — for I will not charge him with willfully and intention- 
ally misrepresenting, — the whole spirit and character of the 
address Avhich, as a man of honor, and as a senator, I felt my- 
self bound in duty to make to this body. 

The senator begins with saying that I charge the President 
with "perfidy!" Did I use any such language? I appeal to 
every gentleman who heard me, to say whether I have in a sino-le 
instance gone beyond a fair and legitimate examination of the 
Executive objections to the bill. Yet he has charged me with 
"arraigning" the President, with indicting him in various 
counts, and with imputing to him motives ^uch as I never even 
intimated or dreamed ; and that, when I was constantly express- 
ing, over and over, my personal respect and regard for President 
Tyler, for whom I have cherished an intimate personal friend- 
ship of twenty years' standing, and while I expressly said, that 
if that friendship should now be interrupted, it should not be 
my fault ! Why, sir, what possible, what conceivable motive 
can I have to quarrel with the President, or to break up the 
whig party? What earthly motive can impel me to wish for 
any other result than that that party shall remain in perfect 
harmony, undivided, and shall move undismayed boldly and 
unitedly forward to the accomplishment of the all-important 
public objects which it has avowed to be its aim ? What im- 
aginable interest or feeling can I have other than the success, 
the triumph, the glory of the whig party ? But that there may 
be designs and purposes on the part of certain other individuals 
to place me in inimical relations with the President, and to repre- 
sent me as personally opposed to him, I can well imagine, — indi- 
viduals who are beating up for recruits, and endeavoring to form 
a third party with materials so scanty as to be wholly insufficient 
to compose a decent corporal's guard. I fear there are such 
individuals, though I do not charge the senator as being himself, 

one of thein. What a spectaclH has been prpsented to this nation 
23 



266 SPEECHES OF HENKY CLAY, 

during this entire session of Congress ! That of the cherished 
and confidential friends of John Tyler, persons who boast and 
claim to be, par excellence, his exclusive and genuine friends, 
being the bitter, systematic, determined, uncompromising oppo- 
nents of every leading measure of John Tyler's administration ! 
Was there ever before such an example presented, in this or any 
ether age, in this or any other country ? I have myself known 
the President too long, and cherished toward him too sincere a 
friendship, to allow my feelings to be affected or alienated by 
any thing which has passed here to-day. If the President 
chooses, — which I am sure lie can not, unless falsehood has been 
whispered into his ears or poison poured into his heart, — to de- 
tach himself from me, I shall deeply regret it, for the sake of our 
common friendship, and our common country. I now repeat, 
what I before said, that, of all the measures of relief which the 
American people have called upon us for, that of a national bank, 
and a sound and uniform currency, has been the most loudly 
and importunately demanded. The senator says, that the ques- 
tion of a bank Avas not the issue made before the people at the 
late election. I can say for one, my own conviction is diametri- 
cally the contrary. What may have been the character of the 
canvass in Virginia, I will not say ; probably gentlemen on both 
sides were, everywhere, governed in some degree by considera- 
tions of local policy. What issues may, therefore, have been 
presented to the people of Virginia, either above or below tide- 
water, I am not prepared to say. The great error, however, of 
the honorable senator is, in thinking, that the sentiments of a 
particular party in Virginia are always a fair exponent of the 
sentiments of the whole Union. I can tell that senator, that 
wherever I was, in the great valley of the Mississippi, in Ken- 
tucky, in Tennessee, in Maryland, — in all the circles in which I 
moved, — everywhere, "bank or no bank" was the great, the 
leading, the vital question. At Hanover, in Virginia, during the 
last summer, at one of the most remarkable, and respectable, 
and gratifying assemblages that I ever attended, I distinctly 
announced my conviction, that a Bank of the United States was 
indispensable. As to the opinions of General Harrison, I know 



ON THE BANK VETO. 267 

that, like many others, he had entertained doubts as to the con- 
stitutionality of a bank ; but I also know that, as the election 
approached, his opinions turned more in favor of a national 
bank ; and I speak from my own personal knowledge of his 
opinions, when I say, that I have no more doubt he would have 
signed tliat bill, than that you, Mr. President, now occupy that 
chair, or that I am addressing you. 

1 rose not to say one word which should wound the feelings 
of President Tyler. The senator says that, if placed in like 
circumstances, I would have been the last man to avoid putting 
a direct veto upon the bill, had it met my disapprobation ; and 
he does me the honor to attribute to me high qualities of stern 
and unbending intrepidity. I hope, that in all that relates to 
personal firmness,— all that concerns a just appreciation of the 
insignificance of human life,— whatever may be attempted to 
threaten or alarm a soul not easily swayed by opposition, or awed 
or intimidated by menace,— a stout heart and a steady eye, that 
can survey, unmoved and undaunted, any mere personal perils 
that assail this poor, transient, perishing fi-ame, I may, without 
disparagement, compare with other men. But there is a sort of 
courage, which, I frankly confess it, I do not possess, a boldness 
to which I dare not aspire, a valor which I can not covet. I can 
not lay myself down in the way of the welfare and happiness of 
my country. That I can not, I have not the courage to do. I can 
not interpose the power with which I may be invested, a power 
conferred not for my personal benefit, nor for my aggrandize- 
ment, but for my country's good, to check her onward march 
to greatness and glory. I have not courage enough, I am too 
cowai-dly for that. I would not, I dai-e not, in the exercise of 
such a trust, lie down, and place my body across the path that 
leads my country to prosperity and happiness. This is a sort 
of courage Avidely different from that which a man may display in 
his private conduct and peisonal relations. Personal or private 
courage is totally distinct from that higlier and nobler courage 
which pi'ompts the patriot to offer himsrlf a voluntary sacrifice to 
his counti-v's o-ond. 

^^)r d;,l T say. .-;« the senator ropvospnls, that (he President 



268 SPEECHES OF HENRY CIAY. 

should have resigned. I intimated no personal wish or desire 
that he should resign. I referred to the fact of a memorable 
resignation in his public life. And what I did say was, that 
there were other alternatives before him beside vetoing the bill ; 
and that it was worthy of his consideration whether consistency 
did not require that the example which he had set when he had a 
constituency of one Slate, should not be followed when he had a 
constituency commensurate with the whole Union. Another 
alternative was to suffer the bill, without his signature, to pass 
into a law under the provisions of the Constitution. And I must 
confess I see, in this, no such escaping by the back door, no such 
jumping out of the window, as the senator talks about. Appre- 
hensions of the imputation of the want of firmness sometimes 
impel us to perform, rash and inconsiderate acts. It is the greatest 
courage to be able to bear the imputation of the want of courage. 
But pride, vanity, egotism, so unamiable and offensive in private 
life, are vices which partake of the character of crimes in the 
conduct of public affairs. The unfortunate victim of these 
passions can not see beyond the little, petty, contemptible circle 
of his own personal interests. All his thoughts are withdrawn 
from his country, and concentrated on his consistency, his firm- 
ness, himself. The high, the exalted, the sublime emotions of a 
patriotism, which, soaring toward heaven, rises far above all 
mean, low, or selfish things, and is absorbed by one soul-trans- 
porting thought of the good and the glory of one's country, are 
never felt in his impenetrable bosom. That patriotism which, 
catchino- its inspirations from the immortal God, and leaving at 
an immeasurable distance below all lesser, groveling, personal 
interests and feelings, animates and prompts to deeds of self- 
sacrifice, of valor, of devotion, and of death itself,— that is 
public virtue ; that is the noblest, the sublimest of all public 

virtues ! t~, • j i. 

I said nothing of any obligation on the part of the President 
to conform his judgment to the opinions of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, although the senator argued as if I 
had, and persevered in so arguing, after repeated corrections. I 
said no r.ucl, ihin-. I know and respect the perfect independence 



ON THE BANK VETO. 269 

of each department, acting within its proper sphere, of other 
depavtments. But I referred to the majorities in the two Houses 
of Congress as further and strong evidence of the opinion of the 
people of tlie United States in favor of the establishment of a" 
Bank of the United States. And I contended that, according to 
the doctrine of instructions which prevailed in Virginia, and of 
which the President is a disciple, and, in pursuance of the exam- 
ple already cited, he ought not to have rejected the bill. 

I have heard that, on his ai'rival at the seat of the general 
government, to enter upon the duties of the office of Vice Presi- 
dent, in March last, when interrogated how far he meant to con- 
form, ill his new station, to certain peculiar opinions which were 
held in Virginia, he made this patriotic and noble reply : "I am 
Vice President of the United States, and not of the State of 
Virginia; and I shall be governed by the wishes and opinions 
of my constituents." Wlien I heard of this encourao-ino- and 
satisfactory reply, believing, as I most religiously do, that a 
large majority of the people of the United States are in favor of 
a national bank (and gentlemen may shut their eyes to the fact, 
deny or dispute, or reason it away as they please, but it is my 
conscientious conviction that two thirds, if not more, of the 
people of the United States desire such an institution), I thought 
I beheld a sure and certain guarantee for the fulfillment of the 
wishes of the people of the United States. I thought it impos- 
sible, that the wants and wishes of a great people, who had 
bestowed such unbounded and generous confidence, and con- 
ferred on him such exalted honors, should be disregarded and 
disappointed. It did not enter into my imagination to conceive, 
that one, who had shown so much deference and respect to the 
presumed sentiments of a single State, should display less toward 
the sentiments of the whole nation. 

I hope, Mr. President, that, in performing the painful duty 
which had devolved on me, I have not transcended the limits of 
legitimate debate. I repeat, in all truth and sincerity, the assur- 
ance to the Senate and to the country, that nothing but a stern, 
reluctant, and indispensable sense of honor and of duty could 
have forced from me the response which I have nia;ie to the 



270 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

President's objections. But, instead of yielding without restraint 
to the feelings of disappointment and mortification excited by the 
perusal of his message, I have anxiously endeavored to temper 
the notice of it, which I have been compelled to take, by the 
respect due to the office of chief magistrate, and by the personal 
regard and esteem which I have ever entertained for its present 
incumbent. 



(W HIS RETIREMENT TO PRIVATE LIFE. 



AT LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, JUNE 9, 1842. 



The friends of Mr. Clay gave liim a complimentary banquet iu June, 
1842, after his retirement to private life. The following sentiment was 
offered by Judge Robertson, who jjresided upon the occasion, in honor of 
tlie illuslrious guest: 

" Henry Clay, — Farmer of Ashland, patriot and philanthropist, — the Ameri- 
can statesman, and unrinaled orator of the age, — illustrious abroad, beloved 
at home; in a long career of eminent public service, often, like Arisiides, 
he breasted the raging storm of passiou and delusion, and b}"^ offering 
himself a sacrifice, saved the Republic; and now, like Cincinnatus and 
Washington, having voluntarily retired to the tranquil walks of private 
life, the grateful hearts of his countrymen will do him ample justice; but 
come what may, Kentucky will stand by him, and still continue to cherish 
and defend, as her own, tlie fame of a son who has emblazoned her 
escutcheon with immoital renown." 

Mr. Clay responded iu the following interesting speech: 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

It was given to our countryman, Franklin, to bring down the 
lightning from heaven. To enable me to be heard by this im- 
mense mukilude, I should have to invoke to my aid, and to throw 
mto my voice, its loudest thunders. As I can not do that, I 
hope I shall be excused for such a use of my lungs as is practi- 
cable, and not inconsistent with the preservation of my health. 
And I feel that it is our first duty to express our obligations 
to a kind and bountiful Providence, for the copious and genial 
showers witli which he has just blessed our land, — a refreshment 
of which it stood much in need. For one, I offer to him my 

humble and dutiful thanks. The inconvenience to us, on this 

(27n 



272 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

festive occasion, is very slight, while the sum of good which 
those timely rains aviU produce, is very great and encouraging. 

I can not but feel, Mr. President, in offering my respectful 
acknowledgment for the honor done me in the eloquent address 
which you have just delivered, and in the sentiment with which 
you concluded it, that your warm partiality, and the fervent 
friendship which has so long existed between us, and the kind- 
ness of my neighbors and friends around me, have prompted an 
exaggerated description, in too glowing colors, of my public 
services and my poor abilities. 

I seize the opportunity to present my heartfelt thanks to the 
whole people of Kentucky, for all the high honors and distin- 
guished favors which I have received, during a long residence 
with them, at their hands ; for the libei-al patronage which I 
received from them in my professional pursuit ; for the eminent 
places in which they have put me, or enabled me to reach ; for the 
generous and unbounded confidence which they have bestowed 
upon me, at all times ; for the gallant and unswerving fidelity 
and attachment with Avhich they stood by me, throughout all the 
trials and vicissitudes of an eventful and arduous life ; and 
above all, for the scornful indignation with which they repelled 
an infamous calumny, directed against my name and fame, at a 
momentous period of my public career. In recalling to our 
memory but the circumstances of that period, one can not but be 
filled with astonishment at the indefatigability with which the 
calumny was propagated, and the zealous partisan use to which 
it was applied, not only without evidence, but in the face of a 
full and complete refutation. Under whatever deception, delu- 
sion, or ignorance, it was received elsewhere, with you, my 
friends and neighbors, and with the good people of Kentucky, it 
received no countenance ; but in proportion to the venom and the 
malevolence of its circulation was the vigor and magnanimity 
with which I was generally supported. Upheld with the con- 
sciousness of the injustice of the charge, I should have borne 
myself with becoming fortitude, if I had been abandoned by you 
as I was by so lai-ge a portion of my countrymen. But to liave 
been sustained and vindicated as I was, by the people of my own 



ON HIS EiOTIREMENT TO PRIVATE LIFE, 273 

Slate, by you who know me best, and whom I had so many 
reasons to love and esteem, greatly cheered and encouraged me, 
in my onward progress. Eternal thanks and gratitude are due 
from me. 

I thank you, friends and fellow-citizens, for your distinguished 
and cnihusiastic reception of me this day ; and for the excellence 
and abundance of the barbecue that has been provided for our 
entertainment ; and I thank, from the bottom of my heart, my 
fair countrywomen, for honoring, and gracing, and adding bril- 
liancy to this occasion, by their numerous attendance. If the 
delicacy and refinement of their sex will not allow tliem to mix 
in the rougher scenes of human life, we may be sure that when- 
ever, by their presence, their smiles and approbation are bestowed, 
it is no ordinary occurrence. That presence is always an abso- 
lute guarantee of order, decorum and respect. I take the greatest 
pleasure in bearing testimony to their value and their virtue. I 
have ever found in them true and steadfast friends, generously 
sympathizing in distress, and, by their courageous fortitude in 
bearing ii themselves, encouraging us to imitate their example. 
And we all know and remember how, as in 1840, they can pow- 
erfully aid a great and good cause, without any departure from 
the propriety or dignity of their sex. 

In looking back upon my origin and progress through life, ] 
have great reason to be thankful. My father died in 1781, leav- 
ing me an infant of too tender years to retain any recollection of 
his smiles or endearments. My surviving parent removed to 
this Stale, in 1792, leaving me, a boy of fifteen years of age, in 
the office of the High Court of Chancery, in the city of Rich- 
mond, without guardian, without pecuniary means of support, 
to steer my course as I might or could. A neglected education 
was improved by my own irregular exertions, without the benefit 
of systematic instruction. I studied law principally in the office 
of a lamented friend, the late Governor Brooke, then Attorney 
General of Yiiginia, and also under the auspices of the vener- 
able and lamented Chancellor Wythe, for whom I had acted as an 
amanuensis. I obiained a license to practice the profession fi-om 
the judges of tlie Court of Appeals of Virginia, and established 



274 SPEECHES OF HENKV CLAY. 

myself in Lexington, in 1797, without patrons, without the favor 
or countenance of the great or opulent, without the means of 
paying my weekly board, and in the midst of a bar uncommonly 
distinguished by eminent members. I remember how comfort- 
able I thought I should be, if I could make one hundred pounds, 
Virginia money, per year, and with what delight I received the 
first fifteen shillings fee. My hopes were more than realized. I 
immediately rushed into a successful and lucrative practice. 

In 1803 or '4, when I was absent from the county of Fayette, 
at the Olympian springs, without my knowledge or previous 
consent, I was bi'ought forward as a candidate, and elected to 
the General Assembly of this State. I served in that body 
several years, and was then transferred to the Senate, and after- 
ward to the House of Representatives of the United States. I 
will not dwell on the subsequent events of my political life, or 
enumerate the offices which I have filled. During my public 
career, I have had bitter, implacable, reckless enemies. But if 
I have been the object of misrepresentation and unmerited cal- 
umny, no man has been beloved or honored by more devoted, 
faithful, and enthusiastic friends. I have no reproaches, none, 
to make toward my country, which has distinguished and elevated 
me far beyond what I had any right to expect. I forgive my 
enemies, and hope they may live to obtain the forgiveness of 
their own hearts. 

It would neither be fitting nor is it my purpose to pass judg- 
ment on all the acts of my public life ; but I hope I shall be 
excused for one or two observations, which the occasion appears 
to me to authorize. 

I never but once changed my opinion on any great measure 
of national policy, or on any. great principle of construction of 
the national Constitution. In early life, on deliberate considera- 
tion, I adopted the principles of intei'preting the Federal Consti- 
tution, which had been so ably developed and enforced by Mr. 
Madison, in his memorable report to the Virginia Legislature ; 
and to them, as I understood them, I have constantly adhered. 
Upon tlie question coming up in tlie Senate of the United States 
to re-charter the first Bank of the United States, thirty years ago, 



ON HIS KETIKEMENT TO PRIVATE LIFE. 275 

I opposed the re-charter, upon convictions which I honestly- 
entertained. The experience of the war, which shortly followed, 
the condition into which the currency of the country was thrown, 
without a bank, and, I may now add, later and more disastrous 
experience, convinced me I was wrong. I publicly stated to 
my constituents, in a speech in Lexington (that which I made 
in the House of Representatives of the United States not hav- 
ing been reported), my reasons for that change, and ihey are 
preserved in the archives of the country. I appeal to that 
record, and I am willing to be judged now and hereafter by 
their validity. 

I do not advert to the fact of this solitary instance of change of 
opinion, as implying any personal merit, but because it is a fact. 
I will however say, that I think it very perilous to the utility of 
any public man, to make frequent changes of opinion, or any 
change, but upon grounds so sufficient and palpable, that the 
public can clearly see and approve them. If we could look 
through a window into the human breast, and there discover the 
causes which led to changes of opinion, they might be made 
without hazard. But as it is impossible to penetrate the human 
heart, and distinguish between the sinister and honest motives 
which prompt it, any public man that changes his opinion, once 
deliberately formed and promulgated, under other circumstances 
than those which I have stated, draws around him distrust, 
impairs the public confidence, and lessens his capacity to serve 
his country. 

I will take this occasion now to say, that I am, and have been 
long satisfied, that it would have been wiser and more politic in 
me, to have declined accepting the office of Secretary of State in 
1825. Not that my motives Avere not as pure and as patriotic as 
ever carried any man into public office. Not that the calumny 
which was applied to the fact Avas not as gross and as unfounded 
as any that was ever propagated. [Here somebody cried out 
that Mr. Carter Beverly, who had been made the organ of 
announcing it, had recently borne testimony to its being un- 
founded. Mr. Clay said it was true that he had voluntarily 
borne such testimony. But, witli great earnestness and emphasis. 



276 . SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

Mr. Clay said, I want no testimony — here, here, here, here, 
repeatedly touching his heart, amidst tremendous cheers, here 
is the best of all witnesses of my innocence.] Not that valued 
friends, and highly esteemed opponents did not unite in urging 
my acceptance of the office. Not that the administration of Mr. 
Adams will not, I sincerely believe, advantageously compare 
with any of his predecessors, in economy, purity, prudence, and 
wisdom. Not that Mr. Adams was himself wanting in any of 
those high qualifications and upright and patriotic intentions 
which were suited to the office. Of that exti'aordinary man, of 
rare and varied attainments, whatever diversity of opinion may 
exist as to his recent course in the House of Representatives 
(and candor obliges me to say that there are some things in it 
which I deeply regret), it is with no less truth than pleasure, 
I declare that, during the whole period of his administiation, 
annoyed, assailed, and assaulted as it Avas, no man could have 
shown a more devoted attachment to the Union, and all its great 
interests, a more ardent desire faithfully to discharge his whole 
duty, or brought to his aid more useful experience and knowl' 
edge, than he did. I never transacted business with any man, 
in my life, with more ease, satisfaction, and advantage, than I 
did with that most able and indefatigable gentleman, as President 
of the United States. And I will add, that more harmony never 
prevailed in any cabinet than in his. 

But my error in accepting the office, arose out of my under- 
rating the power of detraction and the force of ignorance, and 
abiding with too sure a confidence in the conscious integrity and 
uprightness of my own motives. Of that ignorance, I had a 
remarkable and laughable example on an occasion which I will 
relate. I was traveling, in 1828, through I believe it was Spott- 
sylvania county, in Virginia, on my return to AVashington, in 
company with some young friends. We halted at night at a 
tavern, kept by an aged gentleman, who, I quickly perceived, 
from the disorder and confusion which reigned, had not the hap- 
piness to have a wife. After a hurried and bad supper, the old 
gentleman sat down by me, and without hearing my name, but 
understajiding that I was fi'om Kentucky, remarked that he had 



ON HIS RETIREMENT TO PRIVATE LIFE. . 277 

four sons in that State, and that he was very sorry they were 
divided in politics, two being for Adams and two for Jackson ; 
he wished they were all for Jackson. Why? I asked him. Be- 
cause, he said, that fellow Clay, and Adams, had cheated Jack- 
son out of the presidency. Have you ever seen any evidence, my 
old friend, said I, of that? No, he replied, none, and he wanted 
to see none. But, I observed, looking him directly and steadily 
in the face, suppose Mr. Clay were to come here and assure you, 
upon his honor, that it was all a vile calumny, and not a word 
of truth in it, would you believe him? No, replied the old gen- 
tleman, promptly and emphatically. I said to him, in conclu- 
sion, will you be good enough to shoAV me to bed, and bade him 
good night. The next morning, having in the interval learned 
my name, he came to me full of apologies ; but I at once put 
him at his ease by assuring him that I did not feel in the slight- 
est degree hurt or offended with him. 

Mr. President, I have been accused of ambition, oflen accused 
of ambition. I believe, however, that by accusers, will be gen- 
erally found to be political opponents, or the friends of aspirants 
in whose way I was supposed to stand ; and it was thought, 
therefore, necessary to shove me aside. I defy my enemies to 
point out any act or instance of my life, in which I have sought 
the attainment of office by dishonorable or unworthy means. 
Did I display inordinate ambition when, under the administra- 
tion of Mr. Madison, I declined a foreign mission of the first 
grade, and an executive department, both of which he succes- 
sively kindly tendered to me ? when, under that of his successor, 
Mr. Monroe, I was first importuned (as no one knows better 
than that sterling old patriot, Jonathan Roberts, now threatened, 
as the papers tell us, with expulsion fi-om an office which was 
never filled with more honesty and uprightness, because he 
declines to be a servile instrument), to accept a secretaryship, 
and was afterward offered a carte blanche of all the foreiffn mis- 
sions? At the epoch of the election of 1825, I believe no one 
doubted at Washington, that, if I had felt it my duty to vote for 
General Jackson, he would have invited me to take charo-e of a 
department. And such undoubtedly Mr. Crawford would have 



278 . SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

done if he had been elected. Whep the Harrisbufg convention 
assembled, the general expectation was that the nomination would 
be given to me. It was given to the lamented Harrison. Did 
I exhibit extraordinary ambition when, cheerfully acquiescing, I 
threw myself into the canvass and made every exertion in my 
power to insure it success ? Was it evidence of unchastened 
ambition in me to resign, as I recently did, my seat in the 
Senate — to resign the dictatorship, with which my enemies had 
so kindly invested me, and come home to the quiet walks of 
private life ? 

But I am ambitious because some of my countrymen have seen 
fit to associate my name with the succession for the Presidential 
office. Do those who prefer the charge know what I have done, 
or not done, in connection with that object? Have they given 
themselves the trouble to inquire at all into any agency of mine 
in respect to it ? I believe not. It is a subject which I approach 
with all the delicacy Avhich belongs to it, and with a due regard 
to the dignity of the exalted station ; but on which I shall, at the 
same time, speak to you, my friends and neighbors, without 
reserve, and with the utmost candor. 

I have prompted none of those movements among the people, 
of which we have seen accounts. As far as I am concerned, 
they are altogether spontaneous, and not only without concert 
with me, but most generally without any sort of previous knowl- 
edge on m}' part. That I am thankful and grateful, profoundly 
o-rateful, for these manifestations of confidence and attachment, 
I will not conceal or deny. But I have been, and mean to 
remain, a passive, if not an indifferent spectator. I have reached 
a time of life, and seen enough of high official stations, to enable 
me justly to appreciate their value, their cares, their responsi- 
bilities, their ceaseless duties. That estimate of their worth, 
in a personal point of view, would restrain me from seeking to 
fill any one, the highest of them, in a scramble of doubtful issue, 
with political opponents, much less with political friends. That 
I should fee] greatly honored by a call from a majority of the 
people of this country, to the highest office within their gift, I 
shall not deny; nor, if my health were pieserved, might I feel 



ON ins KETIREMENT TO PKIVATE LIFE. 279 

at liberty to decline a summons so authoritative and command- 
ing. But I declare most solemnly, that I have not, up to this 
moment, determined whether I will consent to the use of my 
name or not as a candidate for the chief magistracy. That is a 
grave question, which should be decided by all attainable lights, 
which, I think, is not necessary yet to be decided, and a decision 
of which I reserve to myself, as far as I can reserve it, until the 
period arrives when it ought to be solved. That period has not, 
as I think, yet arrived. When it does, an impartial survey of the 
whole ground should be taken, the state of public opinion prop- 
erly considered, and one's personal condition, physical and intel- 
lectual, duly examined and weighed. In thus announcino- a 
course of conduct for myself, it is hardly necessary to remark, 
that it is no part of my purpose to condemn, or express any 
opinion whatever upon tliose popular movements which have 
been made, or may be contemplated, in respect to the next elec- 
tion of a President of the United States. 

If to have served my country during a long series of years with 
fervent zeal and unshaken fidelity, in seasons of peace and war, 
at home and abroad, in the legislative halls and in an executive 
department; if to have labored most sedulously to avert the 
embarrassment and distress which now overspread this Union, 
and when they came, to have exerted myself anxiously, at the 
extra session, and at this, to devise healing remedies ; if to have 
desired to introduce economy and reform in the geneial admin- 
istration, curtail enormous executive power, and amply provide, 
at the same time, for the wants of the government and the wants 
of the people, by a tariff which would give it revenue and them 
protection ; if to have earnestly sought to establish the bright 
but too rare example of a party in power faithful to its promises 
and pledges made when out of power ; if these services, exer- 
tions, and endeavors, justify the accusation of ambition, I must 
plead guilty to the charge. 

I have wished the good opinion of the world ; but I defy 
the most malignant of my enemies to show that I have 
attempted to gain it by any low or groveling atis, by any 
mean or unworthy sacrifices, by the viulaiion of any of t!;e 



280 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

obli (rations of honor, or by a breach of any of the duties which 
I owed to my country. 

I turn, sir, from these personal allusions and reminiscences, 
to the vastly more important subject of the present actual con- 
dition of this country. If they could ever be justifiable or 
excusable, it would be on such an occasion as this, when I am 
addressing those to whom I am bound by so many intimate and 
friendly ties. 

[After speaking at length upon the distresses of the country, 
he continues :] 

T have traced the principal causes of the present embarrassed 
condition of the country, I hope with candor and fairness, and 
without giving offense to any of my fellow-citizens, who may 
have differed in political opinion from me. It would have been 
far more agreeable to my feelings to have dwelt, as I did in 
1832, during the third year of the first term of President Jack- 
son's administration, upon bright and cheering prospects of gen- 
ei-al prosperity. I thought it useful to contrast that period with 
the present one, and to inquire into the causes which have 
brouo-ht upon us such a sad and dismal reverse. A much more 
important object remains to me to attempt, and that is, to point 
out remedies for existing evils and disorders. 

And the first I would suggest, requires the co-operation of the 
government and the people ; it is economy and frugality, strict 
and persevering economy, both in public and private affairs. 
Government should incur or continue no expense that can be 
justly and honorably avoided, and individuals should do the 
same. The prosperity of the country has been impaired by 
causes operating throughout several years, and it will not be 
restored in a day or a year, perhaps not in a period less than it 
has taken to destroy it. But we must not only be economical, 
we must be industrious, indefatigably industrious. An immense 
amount of capital has been wasted and squandered in visionary 
or unprofitable enterprises, public and private. It can only be 
reproduced by labor and saving. 

The second remedy which I would suggest, and that without 



ON HIS KETIREMENT TO PRIVATE LIFE. 281 

which all others must prove abortive or ineftectual, is a sound 
currency, of uniform value throughout the Union, and redeem- 
able in specie upon the demand of the holder. I know of but one 
mode in which that object can be accomplished, and that has 
stood the test of time and practical experience. If any other can 
be devised than a Bank of the United States, which should be 
safe and certain, and free from the influence of Government, and 
especially under the control of the executive department, I 
should for one gladly see it embraced. I am not exclusively 
wedded to a Bank of the United States, nor do I desire to see 
one established aoainst the will and without the consent of the 
people, but all my observation and reflection have served to 
strengthen and confirm my conviction, that such an institution, 
emanating from the authority of the general government, prop- 
erly restricted and guarded, with such improvements as expe- 
rience has pointed out, can alone supply a reliable currency. 

Accordingly, at the extra session, a bill passed both Houses 
of Congress, which, in my opinion, contained an excellent char- 
ter, with one or two slight defects, which it was intended to cure 
by a supplemental bill, if the veto had not been exercised. That 
charter contained two new, and I think admirable features ; one 
was to separate the operation of issuing circulation from that of 
banking, confiding these faculties to different Boards ; and the 
other was to limit the dividends of the bank, brin2:ino" the excess 
beyond the prescribed amount, into the public treasury. In the 
prepaiation of the charter, every sacrifice was made that could 
be made to accommodate it, especially in regard to the Presi- 
dent. But instead of meeting as in a mutual spirit of concilia- 
tion, he fired, as was aptly said by a Virginia editor, upon the 
flag of truce sent from the Capitol. 

Congress, anxious to fulfill the expectations of the people, 
another bank bill was prepared, in conformity with the plan of a 
bank sketched by the acting President in his veto message, after 
a previous consultation between him and some distinguished 
members of Congress, and two leading members of his cabinet. 
The bill was shaped in precise conformity to his views, as com- 
municated bv those members of the cabinet, and as communi- 
24 



282 SPEECIIES OF IIENKY CLAY. 

cated to others, and was submitted to his inspection after it was 
so prepared ; and he gave his assurances that he would approve 
such a bin. I was no party to the transaction, but I do not 
entertain a doubt of wliat I state. The bill passed both Houses 
of Congress without any alteration or amendment whatever, and 
the veto was nevertheless again employed. 

It is painful for me to advert to a grave occurrence, marked by 
such dishonor and bad faith. Although the President, through 
his recognized organ, derides and denounces the whigs, and 
disowns being one ; although he administers the executive branch 
of the government in contempt of their feelings and in violation 
of their principles ; and although all whom he chooses to have 
denominated as ultra whigs, that is to say, the great body of 
the whig party, have come under his ban, and those of them in 
office are threatened with his expulsion, I wish not to say of 
him one word that is not due to truth and to the country. 1 
will, however, say that, in my opinion, the whigs can not justly 
be held responsible for his admiration of the executive dej^art- 
ment, for the measures he may recommend, or his failure to 
recommend others, nor especially for the manner in which he 
distributes the public patronage. They will do their duty, I 
hope, toward the country, and render- all good and proper sup- 
port to government ; but they ought not to be held accountable 
for his conduct. They elected him, it is true, but for another 
office, and he came into the present one by a lamentable visita- 
tion of Providence. There had been no such instance occurrincj 
under the government. If the whigs were bound to scrutinize 
his opinions, in reference to an office which no one ever antici- 
pated he would fill, he was bound in honor and good faith to 
decline the Harrisburg nomination, if he could not conscien- 
tiously co-operate with the principles that brought him into 
office. Had the President who was elected lived, had that 
honest and good man, on whose face, in that picture, we now 
gaze, been spared, I feel perfectly confident that all the measures 
which the principles of the whigs authorized the country to 
expect, including a Bank of the United States, would have been 
carried. 



OS Ills UPn'IKEMIiXT TO PRIVATE LIKE. 283 

But it may be said that a sound currency, such as I have 
described, is unattainable during the administration of Mr. Tyler. 
It will be, if it can only be obtained through the instrumentality 
of a Bank of the United States, unless he changes his opinion, 
as he has done in reoard to the land bill. 

O 

Unfortunately, our chief magistrate possesses more powers, in 
some respects, than a king or queen of England. The crown is 
never separated from the nation, but is obliged to conform to its 
will. If the ministry holds opinions adverse to the nation, and 
is thrown into the minority in the House of Commons, the crown 
is constrained to dismiss the ministry, and appoint one whose 
opinions coincide with the nation. This Queen Victoria has 
recently been obliged to do ; and not merely to change her 
ministry, but to dismiss the official attendants upon her person. 
But here, if the President holds an opinion adverse to that of 
Congress and the nation upon important public measures, there 
is no remedy but upon the periodical return of the rights of the 
ballot-box. 

Another remedy, powerfully demanded by the necessities of 
the times, and requisite to maintaining the currency in a sound 
state, is a Tariti" which will lessen importations from abroad, and 
tend to increase supplies at home from domestic industr3^ I 
have so often expressed my views on this subject, and so recently 
in the Senate of the United States, that I do not think there is any 
occasion for my enlarging upon it at this time. I do not think 
that an exorbitant or very high tariff is necessary ; but one that 
shall insure an adequate revenue and reasonable protection ; and 
it so happens that the interests of the treasury and the wants of the 
people now perfectly coincide. Union is our highest and greatest 
interest. No one can look beyond its dissolution without horror 
and dismay. Harmony is essential to the preservation of the 
Union. It was a leading, although not the only motive in pro- 
posing the compromise act, to preserve that harmony. The 
power of protecting the interests of our own country, can never 
be abandoned or surrendered to foreign nations, without a cul- 
pable dereliction of duty. Of this truth, all parts of the nation 
are every day becoming- more and' more sensible. In the mean 



284 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

time this indispensable power should be exercised with a discre- 
tion and moderation, and in a form least calculated to revive 
prejudices, or to check the progress of reforms now going on in 
public opinion. 

In connection with a system of remedial measures, I shall 
only allude to, without stopping to dwell on, the distribution bill, 
that just and equitable settlement of a great national question, 
which sprang up during the revoluntionary war, which has seri- 
ously agitated the country, and which it is deeply to be regretted 
had not been settled ten years ago, as then proposed. Independent 
of all other considerations, the fluctuation in the receipts from 
sales of the public lands is so great and constant, that it is a 
resource on which the general government ought not to rely for 
revenue. It is far better that the advice of a Democratic land 
committee of the Senate, at the head of which was the experi- 
enced and distinguished Mr. King of Alabama, given some years 
ago, should be followed, that the Federal Treasury be replenished 
with duties on imports, without bringing into it any part of the 
land fund. 

I have thus suggested measures of relief adapted to the pres- 
ent slate of the country, and I have noticed some of the differ- 
ences which unfortunately exist between the two leading parties 
into which our people are unhappily divided. In considering 
the question, whether the counsels of the one or the other of 
these parties are wisest, and best calculated to advance the 
interest, the honor, and the prosperity of the nation, which every 
citizen ought to do, we should discard all passion and prejudice, 
and exercise, as far as possible, a perfect impartiality. And we 
should not confine our attention merely to the particular measures 
which those parties respectively espouse or oppose, but extend 
it to their general course and conduct, and to the spirit and 
purposes by which they are animated. We should anxiously 
inquire, whither shall we be led by following in the lead of one 
or the other of those parties ; shall we be carried to the achieve- 
ment of the glorious destiny, which patriots here, and the liberal 
portion of mankind everywhere, have fondly hoped awaits us? 
oi- shall we ingloriouslv terminate our career, by adding another 



ON HIS RETIREMENT TO PRIVATE LIFE. 285 

melancholy example of the instability of human affairs, and the 
folly with which self-government is administered ? 

The present situation of our country is one of unexampled 
distress and difficulty ; but there is no occasion for any despond- 
ency. A kind and bountiful Providence has never deserted us ; 
punished us he perhaps has, for our neglect of his blessings 
and our misdeeds. We have a varied and fertile soil, a genial 
climate and free institutions. Our whole land is covered, in 
profusion, with the means of subsistence and the comforts of life. 
Our gallant ship, it is unfortunately true, lies helpless, tossed on 
a tempestuous sea, amid the conflicting billows of contending 
parties, without a rudder and without a faithful pilot. But that 
ship is our country, embodying all our past glory, all our future 
hopes. Its crew is our whole people, by whatever political 
denomination they are known. If she goes down, we all go 
down together. Let us remember the dying words of the gal- 
lant and lamented Lawrence. "Don't give up the ship." The 
glorious banner of our country, with its unstained stars and 
stripes, still proudly floats at its mast-head. With stout hearts 
and strong arms we can surmount all our difiiculties. Let us 
all, all rally round that banner, and firmly resolve to perpetuate 
our liberties and regain our lost prosperity. 

Whigs ! Arouse from the ignoble supineness which encom- 
passes you ; awake from the lethargy in which you lie bound ; 
cast from you that unworthy apathy which seems to make you 
indifferent to the fate of your country. Arouse ! aAvake ! shake 
off" the dew-drops that glitter on your garments, and once more 
march to battle and to victory. You have been disappointed, 
deceived, betrayed ; shamefully deceived and betrayed. But will 
you, therefore, also prove false and faithless to your country, or 
obey the impulses of a just and patriotic indignation ? As for 
Captain Tyler, he is a mere snap, a flash in the pan ; pick your 
whig flints and try your rifles again. 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASUllES, 

EEPORTED BY THE COMMITTEE OF THIRTEEN. 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MAY 13, 1850. 



The following speech, delivered by Mr. Clay, May 13th, 1850, was one 
of his last public efforts. It is his reply to objections raised by senators 
opposed to the " Resolutions " embraced in the memorable " Compromise 
Measures." The Resolutions wore all finally carried, not as originally 
proposed by Mr. Clay, in one Bill, but separately. It is well known that 
for several months, during that session of Congress, Mr. Clay and his 
friends enlisted all their energies in support of the BiU. 



Mr. Clay rose and said : I have risen, Mr. President, for 
the purpose of making some further explanation, and an addi- 
tional exposition to that contained in the report of the Committee 
of Thirteen, which has recently been in consultation upon the 
important subjects referred to them. When the report of the 
committee was presented to the Senate last week, various mem- 
bers of the committee rose in their places, and stated that certain 
parts of the report did not meet with their concurrence. It 
might have been stated with perfect truth that no one member 
of the committee concurred in all that was done by the com- 
mittee, There was a majority upon most, and even upon all the 
subjects reported by them ; and each member, perhaps, if left to 
himself separately, would have presented the various matters 
which were reported to the Senate in a form somewhat different 
from tliat in wliich they wei-e presented in the report. I was 
myself, upon one occasion, in tlie minoritv in the committee; yet 



( .isi; ) 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASUKES. 287 

I have not been discouraged in the least degree by the differences 
which existed in the committee, or which were manifested in the 
Senate last week. Gentlemen who did not exactly agree to what 
was done, will, in the progress of the measure, endeavor to make 
it conformable to their wishes. If it should not be so modified, 
I indulge with great confidence in the hope that no one of them 
is so irrevocably committed against the measures as to induce 
him, upon the question of its final passage, to vote against it. I 
am not authorized to say, and do not mean to say, that there 
will be an affirmative vote of every member of the Senate in favor 
of the measure upon the final passage of the bill ; but I need not 
say that I indulge the hope, whether all modifications which 
were desired by various members of the committee may or may 
not be made, that finally there will be not only a unanimous con- 
currence of the committee oenerallv in the measure recommended, 
but I trust it will leave this branch of Congress Avith a large 
majority in its favor. I repeat that I am not discouraged by 
any thing that has transpired in the committee, or in the Senate, 
or in the countiy, upon the subject of this measure. I have 
believed from the first, and I yet firmly believe, that if these 
unhappy subjects which have divided the country shall be 
accommodated by an amicable adjustment, it must be done upon 
some such basis as that which the committee has reported. And 
can there be a doubt on this subject ? The crisis of the crisis, 
I repeat, has arrived, and the fate of the measures which have 
been reported by the committee, in my humble judgment, 
determines the fate of the harmony or distraction of this country. 
Entertaining that belief, I can not but indulge the hope, that no 
honorable senators, w^ho, upon the first hearing of the report, 
might have seen some matters in it objectionable, according to 
their wishes or judgment, will see fit to oppose its final passage; 
but that the entire, Senate, after a full consideration of the plan 
proposed, and after a fair contrast between this and all other pro- 
posed plans, — at least all other practicable plans of adjustment of 
the question, — whatever expectations or hopes may have been 
announced elsewhere, out of this body, will concur in this 
measure brought forward by the Committee of Thiiteen. and 



288 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

that ultimately the measure will obtain the general concurrence 
of both Houses of Congress. 

But I have risen, as I announced, more particularly for the 
purpose of entering into some further explanation of the course 
of the committee, and of throwing out some few observations in 
support of the measures which they have recommended, for the 
adoption of the Senate. 

The first measure upon which they reported was that of the 
true exposition of the compact between the United States and 
Texas, upon the occasion of the admission of that State into the 
Union. Upon that subject, as already announced in the report, 
I am happy to say, there was an undivided opinion. Two hon- 
orable senators, — one of whom is now absent, and the other 
present, — while they declared that they would not hold them- 
selves, and did not intend to be regarded as holding themselves, 
in every possible state of things, and in every contingency, to 
vote for the admission of States that mio-ht hereafter be carved 
out of Texas ; but that they reserved to themselves, as I under- 
stood them, the right to determine this question whenever any 
new States formed out of Texas should present themselves for 
admission. — Whether, under all the circumstances of the country, 
and the circumstances under which a new State might present 
itself, it should or should not be admitted, they made this 
i-eservation ; and yet they united most heartily in the true ex- 
position of the compact between Texas and the United States, 
according to which, as we all know, a number of States, not 
exceeding four, with or without slavery, having the requisite 
population, with the consent of Texas, were to be admitted into 
the Union, from time to time, as they might be formed, and pre- 
sent themselves for admission. 

But I will not dwell longer upon that part of the subject. I 
will now approach that which, in the committee, and perhaps in 
the two Houses, has given the most trouble and created the most 
anxiety, among all the measures upon which the committee have 
reported, — I mean the admission of California into the Union. 
Against that measure there were various objections. One of 
these itbji^cliiiiiM \v;i:^ widi respect to its pnpnlalinn. Tt has been 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEA8UKES. 289 

contended that it ought only to be admitted, if admitted at all, 
with one representative ; that if admitted with two representa- 
tives, it would be a violation of the Constitution of the United 
States, and that there is no sufficient evidence before the Senate 
and the country that its population would entitle it even to one 
representative. I suppose that no one will contend — California 
and the other acquisitions from Mexico having been admitted 
into the Union only about two years ago last February (that, I 
believe, was two years from the date of the treaty of Hidalgo) — 
that that sort of evidence, to entitle her to one or two representa- 
tives, which is furnished by the decennial enumeration of the 
population of the United States, would be requisite. It is impos- 
sible, with respect to California, that any such evidence should be 
furnished, she having been a part of a common empire only for 
the short time I have mentioned. Now, let me ask, what was 
done in the institution of the first apportionment of the repre- 
sentation among the States of the Union ? There was no Federal 
enumeration of the people of the United States upon which that 
apportionment was made. So many representatives were allowed 
to one State, and so many to another, and so on, completing the 
number provided for by the Constitution of the United States ; 
but in that instance, the convention that allotted these representa- 
tives to the various States based it upon all the information which 
they possessed, whether it was perfectly authentic or not. It is 
known by those who are at all acquainted with the adjustment 
of the question of representation among the several States, that 
in several of them (I may mention Georgia) it was pretty well 
known at the time that a larger number of representatives were 
allotted than the exact state of the population would authorize. 
But it was said in that case, " Georgia is a new State, rapidly 
filling up ; a strong current of emigration is flowing into her 
limits, and she will soon have, — perhaps by the time the two 
representatives take their seats, — the requisite population." In 
this way, not upon information obtained under Federal authority, 
but upon information obtained by all the modes by which it 
could be procured, and which was of a nature calculated to 
satisfy the judgment of the convention, was the appoiiioa- 



290 sPfiEoriEs OF henry clay. 

merit of the representation made by the fraraers of the Con- 
stitution. 

So of a more recent acquisition or annexation, — that of Texas. 
Nobody believed, I think, at the time, that Texas had a popula- 
tion sufficient to entitle her to two representatives. As in the 
case of some of the old thirteen States, so in the case of Texas, 
it was known that she was rapidly filling up, — as I have no doubt 
will turn out to be the fact when the next census comes to be 
taken in Texas, — that before the enumeiation of the next census 
was taken, she would have a population entitling her to two, and 
probably more representatives. 

Now, sir, there is an error existing, as it seemed to me from 
the observation of one or two friends, ihe other day, with regard 
to the requisite population to entitle California to two representa- 
tives. It is not, as it is supposed, double the ratio which was 
fixed by Congress ten years ago. The ratio was fixed at seventy 
thousand six hundred and eighty ; but it was expressly provided 
iu the law establishing it, that any State which had an excess 
beyond a moiety of the ratio established, should be entitled to an 
additional representative. According to the provision of that 
law, to entitle California to two representatives, she would only 
be required to have a population of one hundred and six thou- 
sand and twenty-one, and not as was supposed, one hundred and 
forty-odd thousand. Now, the question is, leaving out of view 
altogether the rapid augmentation which is daily taking place in 
the population of California, whether she has a population at this 
time, — at the time when two members come to be admitted, — 
which would entitle her to two representatives ? Upon this sub- 
ject, I have that which appears satisfactory to my mind, and I 
trust, to the minds of other senators. 

In the first place, I offer to the Senate an extract from a memo- 
rial of the senators and representatives of the State of California 
to the Congress of the United States. To read this memorial, 
or to state it in substance in detail, would take up a considerable 
time ; and as that memorial has been before senators, and can at 
any time be referred to and persued by any who have not already 
examined it, I will merely stale, that according to the statements 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 291 

of that memorial, — a portion of which are conjectural and a part 
official, — the population of Califoi'nia, from the first of Januaiy, 
1850, was one hundred and seven thousand and sixiy-nine, 
exceeding the number requisite to entitle the State to two repre- 
semaiives. But that brings it down only to January, 1850. 
Since that time we are authorized to add to the number, by that 
of the arrivals by sea at the port at San Francisco, as shown by 
the official report of the harbor master from the first of January, 
J 850, to the twenty-seventh of March, 1850. Without going 
into the classification, there are of Americans, eight thousand six 
hundred and ninety-seven ; of Californians, thirteen thousand four 
hundred and fifty-tour ; and of foreigners, five thousand five 
hundred and three. — making a total of sixteen thousand nine 
hundred and fifty-seven. Tlie number of deserters from ships, 
as stated in the memorial before alluded to, is put at three thou- 
sand, in round numbers. The official statement of the harbor 
master, made on the first of March last, to the Legislature, states 
the number of officers and seamen that left their vessels from 
various causes, to be fourteen thousand two hundred and forty. 
The aggregate of all these statements will give the following 
result, viz: First January, 1849, twenty-six thousand, — eight 
thousand Americans, thirteen thousand Californians, and five 
thousand foreigners; on the first of January, 1850, the popula- 
tion was one hundred and seven thousand and sixty-nine, — 
making a total^number, on the twenty-seventn of Match, 1850, 
of one hundred and twenty-four thousand and twenty-six ; to 
which add the number of deserting seamen, fourteen thousand 
two hundred and forty, makes a total of one hundred and thirty- 
five thousand two hundred and fifiy-six. Add to this the popu- 
lation arrived from the United States and other places since that 
time, and altogether, I have no earthly doubt, — I am perfectly 
satisfied in my own mind, — that, putting all these statements 
together, there is at this moment a population in California that 
Would entitle her to two representatives, even supposing there 
had been no provision for a fraction exceeding the moiety of the 
ratio fixed by Congress. 

Upon tl.is question of popuia'ion T do not wish to ;nl;f> up the 



29% SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

time of the Senate unnecessarily. They are bone of onr bone 
and flesh of our flesh, for the greater part. They have lost 
nothing of intelligence and capacity for self-government by 
passing from the United States into California. By the treaty 
of Hidalgo, the Californians veho remain, become citizens of the 
United States, if they do not adopt the alternative of remaining 
Mexicans, within one year after the treaty of Hidalgo was signed. 
The Constitution of the United States does not anywhere fix any 
tern of residence suSicient to constitute an individual one of the 
permanent portion of the people of the United Slates. In the 
Constiiution, with regard to the subject of taxation, and repre- 
sentation, the term is people and number. I have very little 
doubt that there is a sufficient number of citizens of the United 
Slates there to entitle California to two representatives. Well, as 
they will not be represented in the United States, they ought to 
be represented somewhere. Having gone to California, it is 
said that they have gone there only for temporary purposes. 
They have gone there to dig in the mines ; and how many Avill 
return, how many will i-emain there, it is impossible at the 
present time to tell. We have all a right to move from place 
to place. 

With regard to Louisiana, — I am sure I state a fact that will 
be borne out and affirmed by the senator in my eye from that 
Stale (Mr. Downs), — thousands and thousands went to New 
Orleans and other parts of Louisiana shortly after the acquisition 
of that Territory by the treaty of Louisiana, — and even up to 
the present time they go there for temporary purposes, intend- 
ing to make a fortune, if they can, and then return home. 
But so delightful is the climate, so happy do they find themselves 
when they get there, the number of those who go there for such 
purposes, who ultimately return to their individual homes, I do 
not believe amounts to scarcely one in a hundred. So it is and 
will be of California, I dare say. Vast numbers have gone there 
with the inlention of returning, but after they have become con- 
nected by marriage, by social ties, by the acquisition of wealth, 
and by all those circumstances that tend to fix to a permanent 
lucaiiiin the residence of this animal man, they will i-eliiiquish 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 293 

their purpose of returning to the United States, I have no doubt, 
and become permanent and fixed residents of California. On the 
question of population, therefore, I think there is no ground of 
rational objection to the number " two," which has been proposed 
by the committee, and which is precisely the number in the case 
of Texas. 

Now, sir, with regard to the limits of California. Upon thai 
subject, a proposition was offered in the committee to extend a 
line through California, first by thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. 
A member of the committee, however, was not satisfied with 
that, and proposed thirty-five degrees thirty minutes. I believe 
that a majority of the committee was in favor of that amendment; 
but when the question of any line came up, it was rejected by a 
majoriiy of the committee. Is it not a little remarkable that this 
proposition, — this attempt to cut California in two by the line 
thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, or thirty-five degrees thirty 
minutes, or by any other line, — does not come from the North 
at all, from whence it might be supposed it would come ? 
For, with respect to the North, there can be no earthly doubt 
but if there were half a dozen States made out of California they 
would all be free States. But the North does not ask for a 
division. It is from the South that the proposition to divide 
the existinof limits of California comes. The South wants some 
other States, or another State there. Some gentlemen from the 
South, it is true, propose that tliere should be an express recog- 
nition of the right to carry slaves south of the proposed line. 
But I believe that the major part of those who ask for this line, 
do not even ask for this recognition, or for this enactment, to 
carry slaves south of this line ; and I ask every body who is 
acquainted with the country, who has taken the pains to look 
over the map, if he has not come to the conclusion that a friend 
of mine (I believe now within my hearing) from the South, and 
a large planter, came to? He said to me the other day : "Mr. 
Clay, if Congress was to ofi'er me five hundred dollars for every 
slave I might own, requiring me to take them to one of these new 
Territories and keep them there for ton years, I would not accept 
the proposition." 



294 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

N.tw. suppose you were to take the line thii-ty-five degrees 
(liiriy niiuuies, or wliaiever line was proposed, wisai wouhl be 
the cuiisequerice ? There would be an open sea on the one side 
for the escape of slaves, — California, reduced as I have sug- 
gested, on another; and Mexico, with her boundless mountains; 
on anoiher. Who would think, — who believes, — that,, if you 
establish the line proposed. Slavery would ever be carried ihei-e, 
or would be maintained there ? Moreover, I think I have under- 
stood that the delegation in the Convention, south of the line of 
thirty-five degrees thirty minutes, or north of it, voted unani- 
mously against the introduction of Slavery there. It can not, 
therefore, and I suppose it is not designed with any hope that 
there would be Slavery carried there upon the limits of the 
Pacific at all. The makini; of a new State or Slates out of the 
present limits of California is, therefore, but adding to the objec- 
tion which has been made by the South to the preponderance and 
influence, and the apprehensions entertained of the preponder- 
ance and influence of Northern power. If the North is satisfied, 
if the thing is not unreasonable, it seems to me that there should 
be on the part of our Southern friends no hesitation in accepting 
these limits. But they are said to be unreasonable. California is 
some six or seven hundred miles in extent on the Pacific coast; 
it is too large. It is stated in the report that with respect to 
all that portion of California south of thirty-six degrees thirty 
minutes, siiortly after you have left the coast, you encounter 
deserts of sand, which never can be inhabited ; and after you 
pass these deserts of sand, you approach mountains, and are 
involved in successive chains of mountains until you reach a 
population that has no intercourse with the Pacific, bui wliose 
intercourse is cariied on exclusively with Mexico and other 
countries on the Mexican Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean. When 
you come to the northern portion of California, there is a vast 
desert which is said to have never been passed, — or which was 
never known to be passed, — extending from the country which 
the Mormons occupy down to the Pacific ocean. There seems 
to me, then, to be no adequate motive for the decreasing of the 
limilB upon the Pacific, with a view to the addition of future 



ON tiil; compromise measukes. 295 

States, — at least from any amount of geographical knowledge 
which we possess at present. 

It is mentioned in the report that there are other cases of 
Slates which have been admitted without the previous authority 
of Congress. The honorable gentleman from Alabama (Mr. 
Clemens), stated that in all the other instances of States admitted 
into the Union, they had served an apprenticeship of so many 
years. But the statement in the report stands uncontradicted. 
Michigan, Arkansas, Florida, if no other States, came into tht 
Union without any previous act of Congress, according to the 
usage wliich prevailed in the early admission of States, authoriz- 
ing them to meet in Convention and form a Constitution. But it 
is said that they were under the government of the United States. 
So much the better for them ; they had a good government, — a 
Territorial government. But how was it with California? She 
had no government. You abandoned and deserted her, — violated 
the engagement of the treaty of Hidalgo, — lefl her to shift for 
herself as well as she could. In this state of abandonment, she 
has formed a Constitution and come here. I ask aoain, as I had 
occasion to ask some three months ago, if she does not present 
stronger claims upon our consideration than any of those States 
which had Territorial governments, but which, not satisfied with 
them, chose to form for themselves State Constitutions, and come 
here to be admited into the Union ? 

I think, then, Mr. President, that with respect to the popula- 
tion of California, with respect to the limits of California, and 
with respect to the circumstances under which she presents her- 
self to Congress for admission as a State into the Union, all are 
favorable to the grant of what she solicits, and that we can find 
neither in the one nor the other a sufficient motive to reject or to 
throw her back into the state of lawless confusion and disorder 
fiom which she has emerged. 

With the committee I say upon this occasion, that all the con- 
siderations which devolve upon Congress to admit California, 
sai.ction what she has done, and give her the benefit of self-gov- 
ernment, apply with equal force to the two Territories of Utah 
and New Mexico. 



296 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

Mr. President, allow me, at this stage of the few observations 
which I propose to address to the Senate, to contrast the plans 
which have been presented for the settlement of this question. 
One has come to us from very high authority, recommending, 
as I understand it, the admission of California, and doing nothing 
more, leaving the question unsettled of the boundary between 
New Mexico and Texas, and leaving the people who inhabit Utah 
and New Mexico unprovided for by government. I will take the 
occasion to say, that I came to Washington with a most anxious 
desire, — a desire which I still entertain, — to co-operate in my 
legislative position, in all cases in which I can judiciously co- 
operate, with the executive branch of the government. I need 
not add, however, sir, that I came here, also, with a settled pur- 
pose to follow the deliberate dictation of my own judgment, 
wherever that judgment might carry me. It is with great 
pleasure, sir, that I state that we do co-operate with the Presi- 
dent, to the extent which he recommends. He recommends the 
admission of California. The committee propose it. There the 
President's recommendation stops. There we take up the sub- 
ject, and proceed to act upon the other parts of the territory 
acquired from Mexico. Now, sir, which course of the two 
recommends itself best to the judgment of those who are to act 
in the case ? ^ 

In the first place, sir, if we do not provide governments for the 
other portions of the country acquired from Mexico, we fail to 
fulfill the obligation, the sacred obligation, in the treaty with 
Mexico. It is said that they will have a government of their 
OAvn — a local government ; that they have such a one now ; but 
they have not such a one now as they had when they were part 
of Mexico. When they were part of the Republic of Mexico, 
with the common government of Mexico stretching over all the 
parts constituting that republic, they had all the benefit resulting 
from their own local laws, and the additional benefit and security 
resulting from the laws of the supreme government, covering all 
parts of the republic. We have the place of that supreme gov- 
ernment. They were transferred from that sovereignty to this 
sovereignlv. and Ave stipulated Avith that former sovereignty that 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 297 

we would extend to tliom protection to their persons, security fo 
their propertj^ and the benefit of preserving their own religion 
accordino- to the dictates of their own consciences. Now, sir, if 
you admit California, and do nothing for Utah and New Mex- 
ico, — nothing in relation to the settlement of the boundary ques- 
tion with Texas, — I ask you, in what condition, in what state, 
will you leave these countries ? There are the Mormons — a com- 
munity of which I do not wish to say a word in disrespect. I 
kiinw very little about them. I have heard very often things 
said against them ; and I believe during this session my col- 
league, who sits bf'fore me, [Mr. Underwood,] has had occasion 
to present some peiitimi or document, showing some very harsh, 
oppressive, and tyrannical treatment extended by those Mormons 
to citizens of the United States, Avho did not compose a por- 
tion of their community, and who were merely passing- through. 
Of that people, of their capacity (o govern, of the treatment th^T 
would give to tlie other fitizens of the United States who miohi 
settle among them, or who miglit wish to pass throuo-h, not 
belonging there. — of all thfsf matlPi's I shall not speak. The 
members from Missouri and Illinois are much more competent to 
afford information to the Senate upon them than I am. 

But I care not whether they are as bad as they are represented 
by their enemies, or as good as they are represented by their 
friends, or what they are ; the}' are a portion of the people whom 
we are bound by treaty, as well as other high obliualions, to 
govern ; and I put it to you. sir, is it rif;ht to say of the people 
of Utah, comprehending the Mormons, and to the people of New 
Mexico, deprived as ihev are of ihe beriefit, of the government 
which they once had, the supreme auihority of which resides at 
Mexico, — is it right in us to leave them to themselves, and to 
say, they will take care of themselves. I dare say ; and when 
they get ripe, — ay, when will they be ripe for a State govern- 
ment? — when they get ripe, afier the lapse of many years, let 
them come forMai-d. and we will receive them? Is that dis- 
charging our duty ? 

I will go further in reference to the message, which I .am sorry 
that I think it my duty to contrast with the plan of the committee 



298 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

which is now under consideration ; and I will say that I have no 
doubt that there were strong, at least plausible reasons, for the 
adoption of (hat recommendation in the message of the President, 
at the time it was sent into Congress, at the beginning of the ses- 
sion. I have no doubt it was apprehended at that time that it 
was impossible to create any goverments for those Territories, 
without producing scenes in Congress of the most painful and 
unpleasant character. I have no doubt it was believed, as indeed 
it was slated in the message, that distraction would be as^o-ra- 
rated — differences of opinion, perhaps, carried to extreme lengths, 
if any attempts should be made to extend government over those 
Territories. 

But I am happy to be able to recognize what all have seen, 
that, since the commencement of the session, the most gratifying 
change in the public mind has taken place. The North, the 
glorious North, has come to the rescue of this Union of ours. 
She has displayed a disposition to abate in her demands. The 
South, the glorious South, — not less glorious than the other sec- 
tion of the Union, — has also come to the rescue. The minds 
of men have moderated. Passion has given place to reason. 
Everywhere, — everywhere, in all parts of the Union, there is a 
demand, — the force and effect of which, I trust, will be felt in 
both branches of Congress, — for an amicable adjustment of these 
questions, for the relinquishment of extreme opinions enter- 
tained, whether upon one side of the question or upon the other, 
and coming together once more as friends and brethren, living 
under the common country, and enjoying the benefits and happi- 
ness which have flowed from a common government. I think 
that if the President had to make a recommendation to Congress, 
with all the lights which have been shed upon the subject since 
the commencement of the session, now that nearly five months of 
the session have gone, he would not have limited himself simply 
to a recommendation to admit California, or to leave the Terri- 
tories to shift for themselves as they could or might. 

He tells us in one of those messages, — I forget whether it is 
the message of December or January, — that he had reason to 
believe tliat one of tliose Territories at least (New Moxico) would 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 299 

possibly form a State government for herself, and might come 
here, even during the progi-ess of this debate. At all events, if 
there had been such a state of circumstances at the period that 
this message was sent in as exists down to the present time, I can 
not but believe that the gendemaii who now pi'esides at the head 
of our political affairs, if he had had the benefit of our light, 
would have made a recommendation much more comprehensive, 
much more general and healing in its character, than the simple 
recommendation of the admission of California, leaving all the 
other questions untouched and unsettled. 

Wiih regard to the abandoned condition of Utah and New- 
Mexico, to wliich I have alluded, left without any authority of 
this government, acting locally to protect the citizen who goes 
there to settle, and to protect the citizen who is in transitu 
between these countries, without any authority connected with 
the supreme authority of the Government here, — when they are 
communicating from time to lime this state of things existing in 
those countries, I submit that to abandon them, in face of our 
obligation contained in the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and 
other high obligations, is not conformable to that duty which we 
are called upon to perform. 

Well, then, there is the boundary question with Texas. Why, 
sir, at this veiy moment we learn through the public papers that 
Texas has sent her civil commissioners to Santa Fe, or into New 
Mexico, for the purpose of bringing them under her authority ; 
and if you leave the Texas boundary question unsettled, and 
establish no government for Utah and New Mexico, I venture to 
say that, before we meet again next December, we shall hear of 
some civil commotion, perhaps the shedding of blood, in the 
contest between New Mexico and Texas with respect to the 
boundary ; for, without meaning to express at this time, or at 
any time, any positive opinion on that question, we know that 
the people of Santa Fe are as much opposed to the government 
of Texas, and as much convinced that they do not belong to 
Texas, that they constitute no portion of the Territory of Texas, 
as we know Texas to be earnest in asserting the contrary, and 
affirming her right to all the country from the mouth of the Rio 



300 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

Grande to its uppermost sources. Is it right, then, to leave these 
Territories unprovided for ? Is it right to leave this important 
question of the boundary between New Mexico and Texas un- 
settled, to produce possibly the fearful consequences to which I 
adverted ? 

Sir, on these questions, I believe, — though I do not recollect 
the exact state of the vote in committee, — that there was no 
serious diversity of opinion. We all thought we should estab- 
lish governments for them if we could ; that, at any rate, we 
should make the attempt, and if we failed, after making the 
attempt, we should stand irreproachable for any voluntary aban- 
donment or neglect of them on our part. 

The next question Avhich arose before the committee, after 
having agreed upon the proposal to be made to Texas for the 
settlement of the boundary between her and New Mexico, was 
the question of the union of these three measures in one bill. 
And upon that subject, sir, the same diversity of opinion which 
had developed itself in the Senate displayed itself in the com- 
mittee. 

[A senator, in his seat. — What of the amount to be paid 
to Texas?] 

Mr. Clay. — Ah ! I am reminded that I have said nothing 
about the amount proposed to be given to Texas, for the relin- 
quishment of her title to the United States of the territory north 
of the proposed line. The committee, I hope, with the approba- 
tion of the Senate, thought it best not to fill up that blank until 
the last moment, upon the final reading of the bill ; that if it were 
inserted in the bill it would go out to the country, and might 
lead to improper speculation in the stock markets ; and that 
therefore it was better to leave it out until the final passage of 
the bill. — When we arrive at that point, which I hope we shall 
do in a short time, I shall be most happy to propose tlie sum 
which has been thought of by the committee. 

Sir, The committee recommended the union <^f these three 
measures. If the senator from Missouii Avill allow me the benefit 
of those two cannons pointed to this side of the house, [alluding 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES, 301 

to two volumes of Hatsel,] I will be much obliged to him. I 
believe the senator from Missouri has them on his table. 

[Mr. Benton. — They are in the Secretary's office.] 

The union of these three measures in one bill has been objected 
to, and has been already very much discussed in the Senate. Out 
of respect to the senator from Missouri and to the Senate, I feel 
myself called upon to give some answer to the argument which 
he addressed to the Senate some days ago, to show that it was 
improper to connect them together. I must begin by stating 
what I understand to be Parliamentary law in this country. It 
consists, in the first place, of the Constitution of the United 
States and of the rules adopted by the two Houses of Congress ; 
and if you please, sir, Jefferson's Manual, which has been 
respected as authority, and used, I believe, in most of the delib- 
erative bodies in this country. Now, sir, either the senator from 
Missouri or myself totally misunderstands what is meant by 
Hatsel in the use of the word "tackingr." We have no such 
thina: as tackina: in the English sense of the term. Jeffierson has 
no chapter in his Manual on this subject of tacking. Hatsel 
first. Tacking in England is this : By the Constitution of Eng- 
land, — or, in other words, by the practice of England, which 
makes her Constitution, — money bills, supply bills, bills of 
subsidy and aid of all kinds, are passed by the House of Com- 
mons, sent to the House of Lords and the Lords are obliged to 
take them word for word, without making any amendment what- 
ever. They are sent in that shape to the Crown, and the Crown 
is obliged to take them without amendment at all. The practice 
of tacking in England is this : knowing that a money bill is 
obliged to be passed without any alteration or amendment in the 
Lords, the Commons in England frequently, when they have a 
public object or measure to carry out, tack that measure to a 
money bill, and send it to the House of Lords. They know that 
the oven-uling necessity of the aristocracy and of the Crown is 
such that they must, for the sake of the money granted to them, 
agree to that clause favorable perhaps to liberty, or to something 
else that is tacked on to it. The process of tacking in England 



302 SPEECHES OF IIENicY CLAY, 

is therefore objected to by the Crown and by the arislooracy 
always. It is never objected to by the Commons. — And accord- 
inu- as the prevalence of the authority of the Crown and the aris- 
tocracy, or of the public branch of the legislature takes place, 
the practice of tacking is resorted to. Hence the quolaiion read 
by the senator the other day from Chancellor Finch. The King 
always, and the Lords always complain of it. Hafsel, in the 
very loose and very unsatisfactory work of his which I have 
often had occasion to refer to, complains of it ; but the fact is, 
the process of tacking in England is favorable to liberty ; it is 
favorable to the Commons of England. It is never objected to 
by them, but it is always objected to by the Crown and the aris- 
tocracy. Her Majesty would be glad to get the money without 
being obliged to make any concessions to her subjects ; and 
the House of Lords would be equally disposed with her Majesty 
to think it very wrong to be compelled to swallow the whole. 
They would be willing to take the money, but they would have 
to take alono- with it the clause which has been tacked on in 
favor of personal liberty or of some rights of the subjects. 

Sir, I had intended to go into the details of this subject, hy way 
of answer to the honorable senator ; but, really. I ihink it is 
hardly necessary. You find in the third volume of Hatsel that 
he has a chapter on the subject of bills tacked to bills of supply. 
I repeat, sir, that we have no such thing as that tacking process 
in this country. And why ? Because, although lax bills and 
other bills originate in the House of Represeniaiives, and by the 
Constitution are required to originate there, the Senate have a 
rio-ht to amend, to strike out any clause, to reduce the tax, or 
to make any additions or amendment which they please. The 
Senate is under no such restraint as is the House of Lords in 
England. Hence we have no such thing as tacking, in the Eng- 
lish Parliamentary sense of the term. But tacking, even in Eng- 
land, is confined to what are considered incongruous measures. 
Now, sir, the question is, whether there is any incongruity in 
these measures : a bill for the admission of California : a bill 
establishing: a Territorial government in Utah ; a bill establish- 
ing a Territorial government for New Mexico ; and what is 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES, 303 

indispensable, if we give her a government, a bill providing 
what sliall be her boundary, provided Texas shall accede to the 
liberal proposal made to her ? Is there any thing, I ask, incongru- 
ous in all this? Where is it? What is the incongiuiiy ? Wliat 
is the indignity? for I have heard time after time that it is undig- 
nified, or that it is ill-treating California, to attach her to thdse 
portions of territory acquired from Mexico, included in Utah and 
New Mexico. What is the indignity ? I admit that in general, 
for the sake of simplicity of business, it is better not to make any 
one bill complex, or even to embrace too great a variety of sub- 
jects of a congruous nature. But that rests in the sound dis- 
cretion of Congress. It rests in the pleasure of Congress. Sir, 
it has been said that California has set us a very good example, 
by providing by her Constitution that no two subjects are to be 
united in the same bill. Louisiana has done the same thing in 
her Constitution. Ask the senator from Louisiana, or ask an 
honorable member of that Legislature, who has just arrived here 
from Baton Rouge, and they will tell you to what vast incon- 
venience legislative action is exposed, in consequence of this 
Constitutional restriction. What are incongruous subjecis, what 
are distinct subjects, is a matter not always absolutely certain. 
If any thing which is thought incongruous is incorporated in a 
bill in that Legislature, it is sent to the judiciary, and if the judi- 
ciary thinks the subjects are incongruous, the law can not be 
constitutional, because, in the opinion of the Judges, it was in 
violation of the Constitution, which declared that the Legislature 
should pass only congruous bills. I have been told, and the 
senator from Louisiana can state whether I have been coi'iectly 
informed or not, that in two or three instances laws which have 
been passed by the Legislature of Louisiana have been declared 
unconstitutional, in consequence of this Constitutional restriction 
upon legislative action, and the Courts would not enforce them. 
I mentioned, sir, a while ago, acts which embraced every pos- 
sible variety of legislation. I referred to an act providing for 
the support of the military academy of the United States for the 
year 1838, and for other pui-poses. That act makes thirty or 
forty appropriations for d iffereiit objects I It makes appropriations 



304 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

for the documentary history of the revolution, for continuing 
the construction of the patent office, for furnishing machinery 
and other expenses incident to the outfit of the branch mint at 
New Orleans, Charlotte and Dahlonega ; for the salaries of the 
governor, chief judge, associate justices, district attorney, mar- 
shal, and pay and mileage of the members of the Legislative 
Assembly of the Territory of Iowa, the expense there of taking 
the census, and for other incidental and contingent expenses of 
that Territory, and in relation to the investment in State stock 
of the bequest of the late James Smithson, of London, for the 
purpose of founding at Washington, in tliis district, an institu- 
tion we denominate the Smithsonian Institution. These and 
various other acts ai'e all comprehended in a bill making an 
appropriation for the military academy at West Point. 

Now, sir, after this, can it be said that thei-e is any want of 
power, or any non-conformity in the practice of Congress, in 
endeavoring to unite together, not three incongruous and dis- 
cordant measures, but three measures of the same character, 
having, in different form, the same general object ? 

I will pass on, with a single observation on an amendment 
introduced by the committee into the Territorial bill. To that 
amendment I was opposed, but it was carried in the committee. 
It is an amendment which is to be found in the tenth section of 
one of the bills limiting the power of the Territorial Legislature 
upon the subject of laws which it may pass. Among other 
limitations, it declares " that the Territorial Legislature shall 
have no power to pass any law in respect to African Slavery." 
I did not then, and do not now, attach much importance to the 
amendment, which was proposed by an honoiable senator, now in 
my eye, and carried by a majority of the committee. The effect 
of that clause will at once be understood by the Senate. It 
speaks of " African " Slavery. The word African was intro- 
duced so as to leave the government at liberty to legislate as it 
might think pniper on any other condition of Slavery, — " Peon" 
or "Indian" Slavery, which has so long existed under the 
Spanish regime. The object Avas to impose a restriction upon 
them as to the passage of any law either to admit or exclude 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 305 

African Slavery, or of any law restricting it. The effect of that 
amendment will at once be seen. If the Territorial Legislature 
can pass no law with respect lo African Slavery, the stale of the 
law as it exists now in the Territories of Uiah and New Mexico, 
will continue to exist until the people form a Constitution for 
themselves, when they can settle the question of Slavery as they 
please. They will not be allowed to admit or exclude it. They 
will be restrained on the one hand from its admission, and on 
the other from its exclusion. Sir, I shall not repeat now the 
expression of opinion which I have already announced to the 
Senate as being held by me on this subject. My opinion is, that 
the law of Mexico, in all the variety of forms in which legislation 
can take place, — that is to say, by the edict of a dictator, by the 
Constitution of tne people of Mexico, by the act of the legislative 
authority of Mexico, — by all these modes of legislation, Slavery 
has been abolished there. I am aware that some other senators 
entertain a different opinion ; but without going into discussion 
of that qtiestion, which I think altogether unnecessary, I feel 
authorized to say that the opinion of a vast majority of the people 
of the United States, of a vast majority of the jurists of the 
United Stales, is in coincidence with that which I entertain ; that 
is to say, that at this moment, by law and in fact, there is no 
Slavery there, unless it is possible that some gentlemen from the 
slave Stales, in passing througli that country, may have taken 
along their body slaves. In point of fact, and in point of law, I 
entertain the opinions which I expressed at an early period of the 
session. Sir, we have lieard since, from authority entitled to the 
highest respect, from no less authority than that of the delegate 
from New Mexico, that labor can be there obtained at the rate of 
three or four dollars per month ; and, if it can be got at that rate, 
can any body suppose that any owner of slaves would ever carry 
them to that country, where he could only get three or four dol- 
lars per month for them ? 

I believe, on this part of the subject, I have said every thing 
that is necessary for me to say ; but there i-emain two or three 
subjects upon which I wish to say a few words before I close 
what I have to offer for the consideration of the Senate. 
26 



306 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

The next subject upon which the committee acted Avas that of 
Fugitive slaves. The committee have proposed two amendments 
to be oftered to the bill introduced by the senator from Virginia 
(Mr. Mason), whenever the bill is taken up. The first of these 
amendments provides that the owner of a fugitive slave, when 
leaving his own State, and whenever it is practicable, — for some- 
times, in the hot pursuit of an immediate runaway, it may not 
he in the power of the master to wait to get such record, and he 
will always do it if it is possible, — shall carry with him a record 
from the Slate from which the fugitive has fled ; which record 
shall contain an adjudication of two facts ; first, the fact of 
Slavery, and secondly, the fact of elopement ; and in the third 
place, such a general description of the slave as the court shall 
be enabled to give upon such testimony as shall be brought 
before it. It also provides that this record, taken from the 
county court, or from the court of record in the slaveholding 
State, shall be taken to the free State, and shall be there held to 
be competent and sufficient evidence of the facts which it avows. 
Now, sir, I heard objection made to this, that it would ,be an 
inconvenience and an expense to the slaveholder. I think the 
expense will be very trifling to the great advantages which will 
result. The expenses will be only two or three dollars for 
the seal of the court, and the certificate and attestation of the 
clerk, etc. Sir, we know the just reverence and respect in which 
records are ever held. The slaveholder himself will feel, when 
he goes from Virginia to Ohio with this record, that he has got a 
security which he never possessed before for the recovery of his 
properly. And when the attestadon of the clerk, under the seal 
of the court is exhibited to the citizen of Ohio, that citizen will 
be disposed to respect, and bound to respect, under the laws of 
the United States, a record thus exhibited, coming from a sister 
Slate. The inconvenience will be very slight, very inconsider- 
able, compaied with the great security of the slaveholder. 

With respect to the other amendment off"ered by the committee 
to the fugitive bill, I regretted extremely to hear the senator from 
Arkansas object so earnestly and so seriously to it. I did not 
pretend to question his right, or the right of any other senator, 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 307 

but he will surely allow me to say, in all kindness, that of all the 
Stales in this Union, without exception, I will not except even 
Virginia herself. I believe that the State which sufl'ers more 
than any other by the escaping of slaves from their owners, seek- 
ing refuge either in Canada, or in some of the non-slaveholdino- 
Slates, Kentucky is the one. I doubt very much whether the 
Slate of Arkansas ever lost a slave. They may, very possibly, 
once in awhile, run off to the Indians, but very rarely. So of 
other interior Slates. So of Georgia and South Carolina. Some- 
times, perhaps, a slave escapes from their seaports, but very 
rarely by land. Kentucky is the most suffering State, but I 
venture to anticipate for my own State, that she will be satisfied 
with the provisions to which I am now about to call the attention 
of the Senate. 

Mr. President, in all subjects of this kind we must deal fairly 
and honesily by all. We must recollect that there are feelings, 
and interests, and sympathies on both sides of the question ; and 
no man who has ever brought his mind seriously to the consid- 
eration of a suitable measui-e for the re-capture of runaway 
slaves, can fail to admit that the question is surrounded with great 
difficulties. On the one hand, if the owner of the slave could 
g"o into this non-slaveholding State, and seize the negro, put his 
hands upon him, and the whole world would recognize the truth 
of his ownership of property, and the fact of the escape of that 
property, there would be no difficulty then in those Slates where 
prejudice against Slavery exists in the highest degree. But he 
goes to a Slate which does not recognize Slavery. Recollect 
how different the state of fact is now from what it was in 1793, 
nearly sixty years ago. There were then, comparatively, few free 
persons of color, — few, compared to the numbers which exist at 
present. By the progress of emancipation in the slaveholding 
States, and the multiplication of them by natural causes, vast 
numbers of them have rushed to the free States. There are 
in the cities of Philadelphia, New York and Boston, — I have 
not looked into the precise number, — some eight or ten to one 
in proportion to the number there were in 1793, when the act 
passed. 



308 SPEECHES OF HENKY CLAY. 

In proportion to the number of free blacks, multiplied in the 
free Slates, does the difficulty increase of recovering a fugitive 
from a slaveholding State. Recollect, Mr, President, that the 
rule of law is reversed in the two classes of States. In the 
ulaveholding States the rule is, that color implies Slavery, and 
the onus probandi of freedom is thrown on the persons claiming 
it, as every person in the slaveholding States is regarded prima 
facie as a slave. On the contrary, when you go to the non- 
slaveholding States, color implies freedom and not Slavery. 
Every man who is seen in the free States, though he be a man 
of color, is regarded as free. And when a stranger from Vir- 
ginia or Kentucky goes to remote parts of Pennsylvania, and 
sees a black person, who perhaps has been living there for years, 
and claims him to be his slave, the feelings and sympathy of the 
neighborhood are naturally and necessarily excited in favor of 
the coloi-ed person. We all respect these feelings, where they 
are honestly entertained. Well, sir, what are you to do in a case 
of that kind ? You will give every satisfaction that can be given 
that the person whom you propose to arrest is your property, and 
is a fugitive from your service or labor. That is the extent of 
one amendment which we propose to offer, but there is also 
another. The amendment upon which I have been commenting 
provides for the production of a record. Now, what is the incon- 
venience of that ? It provides that when the owner of the slave 
shall arrest his property in a non -slaveholding State, and shall 
take him before the proper functionary to obtain a certificate to 
authorize the return of that property to the State from which he 
fled, and if he declares to that functionary at the time that he is 
a free man and not a slave, what does the provision require the 
officer to do ? Why, to take a bond from the agent or owner 
that he will carry the black person back to the county of the 
State from which he fled ; and that at the first court which may 
sit after his return, he shall be carried there, if he again assert 
the right to his freedom ; the court shall afford and the owner 
shall afford to him all the facilities which are requisite to enable 
him to establish his right to freedom. Now, no surety is even 
required of the master. The committee thought, and in that I 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 309 

believe they all concurred, that it would be wrong to demand of 
a stranger, hundreds of miles from his home, surety to take back 
the slave to the State from which he fled. The trial by jury is 
what is demanded by the non-slaveholding States. Well, we put 
the party claimed to be a fugitive back to the State from which 
he tied, and give him trial by jury in that State. 

Well, sir, ought we not to make this concession ? It is but 
very little inconvenience. I will tell you, sir, what will be the 
practical operation of this. It will be this : When a slave has 
escaped from the master, and taken a refuge in a free State, and 
that master eomes to re-capture him and take him back to the 
Stale from which he fled, the slave will cry out, "I do not know 
the man ; I never saw him in my life ; I am a free man." He 
will say anj' thing and do any thing to preserve to himself that 
freedom of which he is for the moment in possession. He will 
assert most confide atly befoi-e the Judge that he is a free man. 
But take him back to the Slate from which he fled, to his com- 
rades, and he will state the truth, and will relinquish all claim to 
freedom. The practical operation, therefore, of the amendment 
which we have proposed, will be attended with not the least 
earthly inconvenience to the party claiming the fugitive. The 
case is bond without surety. The bond is transmitted by the 
officer taking it to the district attorney of the State from which 
he has fled. That officer sees that the bond is executed, and 
that the slave is taken before the Court. Perhaps, before the 
slave reaches home, he will acknowledge that he is a slave ; 
there is an end of the bond and an end of the trouble about the 
master. Is this unreasonable? Is it not a proper and rational 
concession to the prejudices, if you please, which exist in the 
non-slaveholding Slates ? Sir, our rights are to be asserted ; our 
rights are to be maintained. They will be asserted and main- 
tained in a manner not to wound unnecessai-ily the sensibilities 
of others. And, in requiring such a bond as this amendment 
proposes to exact from the owner, I do not think there is the 
slightest inconvenience imposed upon him, of which he ought 
to complain. 

Sir, there is one opinion prevailing, — I hope not extensively, — 



310 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

in some of the non-slaveholding States, which nothing we can 
do will conciliate. I allude to that opinion that asserts that there 
is a higher law, — a divine law, — a natural law, — which entitles 
a man, under whose roof a runaway has come, to give him 
assistance, and succor, and hospitality. A divine law, a natural 
law ! and who are they that venture to tell us what is divine and 
what is natural law? Where are their credentials of prophecy? 
Why, sir, we are told that the other day, at a meeting of some 
of these people at New Yoi-k, Moses and all the prophets were 
rejected, and that the name even of our blessed Saviour was 
treated with sacrilege and contempt by these propagators of a 
divine law, of a natural law which they have discovered above 
all laws and Constitutions. If Moses and the prophets, and our 
Saviour and all others, are to be rejected, will they condescend 
to show us their authority for propagating this new law, this 
new divine law of which they speak ? The law of nature, sir ! 
Look at it as it is promulgated, and even admitted or threatened 
to be enforced, in some quarters of the world. Well, sir, some 
of these people have discovered another plausible law of nature. 
There is a large class who say that if a man has acquired, no 
matter whether by his own exertions or by inheritance, a vast 
estate, much more than is necessary for the existence of himself 
and family, I who am starving, am entitled by a law of nature 
to have a portion of these accumulated goods to save me from 
the death which threatens me. Here are you, with your barns 
full, with your warehouses full of goods, collected from all quar- 
ters of the globe ; your kitchens and laundries and pantries all 
full of that which conduces to the subsistence and comfort of 
man ; and here am I standing by, as Lazarus at the gate of the 
rich man, perishing from hunger, — will not the law of nature 
allow me to take enough of your superabundance to save me a 
little while from that death which is inevitable without I do it ? 
Why, sir, trace this pretended law of nature, about which, 
seriously, none of the philosophers are agreed, and apply it to 
one of the most interestinsf and solemn ceremonies of life. Go 
to a Mahometan country, and the Mahometan will tell you that 
you are entitled to as manv wives as you can get. Come next 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 311 

to a Christian country, and you will be told that you are entitled 
to but one. Go to our friends the Shakers, and they will tell 
you that you are entitled to none. But there are persons in this 
age of enlightenment and progress and civilization, who will rise 
up in public assemblages, and, denouncing the church and all 
that is sacred that belongs to it, — denouncing the founders of 
the religion which all profess and revere, — will tell you that not- 
wiihstanding the solemn oath which they have taken by kissing 
the book to carry out into full effect all the provisions of the 
Constitution of our country, there is a law of their God, — a divine 
law, which they have found out and nobody else has, — superior and 
paramount to all human law ; and that they do not mean to obey 
this human law, but the divine law, of which, by some inspira- 
tion, by some means undisclosed, they have obtained a knowl- 
edge. That is the class of persons which we do not propose 
to conciliate by any amendment, by any concession which we 
can make. 

But the committee, in considering this delicate subject, and 
looking at the feelings and interests on both sides of the ques- 
tion, thought it best to offer these two provisions, — that which 
requires the production of a record in the non-slaveholding 
States, and that which requires a bond to grant to the real claim- 
ant of his freedom a trial by jury, in the place where that trial 
ought to take place according to the interpretation of the Consti- 
tution of the United States, if it take place anywhere. Therefore, 
in order to obviate the difficulties whicli have been presented, 
and to satisfy the prejudices in the non-slaveholding States, we 
propose to give the fugitive the right of trial by jury in the State 
from which he fled. The statement in the report of the com- 
mittee is perfectly true, that the greatest facilities are always 
extended to every man of color in the slaveholding States who 
sues for freedom. I have never known an instance of a failure 
on the part of a person thus suing to procure a verdict and judg- 
ment in his favor, if there were even slight grounds in support 
of his claim. And, sir, so far is the sympathy in behalf of a 
person suing for his freedom carried, that few members of the 
bar ajipear against them. I will mention, though in no boastful 



312 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

spirit, that I myself never appeared but once in my life against a 
person suing for his freedom, but have appeared for them in 
many instances without charging tliem a solitaiy cent. That, I 
believe, is the general course of the liberal and eminent portion 
of the bar throughout the country. One case I made an excep- 
tion, but it was a case when I appeared for a particular friend. 
I told him: "Sir, I will not appear against your negroes unless 
I am perfectly satisfied that they have no right to freedom ; and 
even if I shall become, after the progress of the trial, convinced 
that they are entitled to freedom, I shall abandon your cause." 
I venture to say, then, that in all that relates to tenderness of 
treatment to that portion of our population, and to the adminis- 
tration of justice to them, and the supply of their wants, nothing 
can be found in the slaveholding States that is not honorable and 
creditable to them. 

Mr. President, the only measure remaining upon which I shall 
say a word now, is the abolition of the slave-trade in the District 
of Columbia. There is, I believe, precious little of it. I believe 
the first man in my life that I ever heard denounce that trade was 
a Southern man — Jolin Randolph of Roanoke. I believe there 
has been no time within the last forty years when, if earnestly 
pressed upon Congress, there would not have been found a 
majority, perhaps a majority from the slaveholding Stales them- 
selves, in favor of the abolition of the slave trade in this District. 
Tiie bill which the committee has reported is founded upon the 
law of Maryland, as it existed when this District was set apart 
and ceded to the United Slates. — Maryland has since very often 
changed her laws. — What is their exact condition at present, I 
am not aware. , I have heard that she has made a change at the 
last session, and I am told that they may be changed in the 
course of a year or two. Sir, some years ago, it would have 
been thouo-ht a ij-reat concession to the feelinos and wishes of the 
North to abolish this slave-trade. Now, I have seen some of the 
rabid abolition papers denounce it as amounting to nothing, 
They do not care for that. And will my friends, some of my 
friends on the oilier side of the house, allow me to say a word or 
two with respect to their course in relation to this measure? At 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 313 

the beginning of this session, as you know, that offensive pro- 
viso, called the " Wilmot proviso," was what was most appre- 
hended, and what all the slaveholding States were most desirous 
to get rid of. Well, sir, by the operation of causes upon the 
Northern mind friendly to the Union, hopes are inspired which, 
I trust, will not be frustrated in the progress of this measure, 
that the North, or at least a sufficient portion of the North, are 
now willing to dispense with the proviso. When, three months 
ago, I offered certain resolutions, and when to these measures it 
was objected, by way of reproach, that they were simply carry- 
ing out my own plan, my honorable friend from North Carolina, 
at the moment, justly pointed out the essential differences between 
the plan, as contained in the resolutions offered by me, and that 
now presented by the committee. 

At the time I offered those resolutions, knowing what con- 
sequences, and, as I sometimes feared, fatal consequences, might 
result from the fact of the North insisting on the proviso, by 
way of compensation, in one of those resolutions which I 
offered, — the second one, — I stated two truths, one of law and 
one of fact, which I thought ought to satisfy the North that 
it ought no longer to insist on the Wilmot proviso. Those 
truths were not incorporated in the bill reported by the com- 
mittee, but they exist, nevertheless, as truths. I believe them 
both now as much as I did in February last. I know there are 
others who do not concur with me in opinion. Every senator 
must decide for himself, as the country will decide for itself, 
when the question comes to be considered. Well, when our 
Southern friends found they were rid of the proviso, they were 
highly satisfied, and I shared with them in their satisfaction. 
If I am not much mistaken, a great majority of them would 
have said, " If, Mr. Clay, you had not put those two obnoxious 
truths in them, we should have been satisfied with your reso- 
lution." Well, sir, we have got rid of the Wilmot proviso, we 
have got rid of the enactment into laws of the two truths to 
which I refer, but I fear there are some of our Southern brethren 
who are not satisfied. There are some who say that there is 

yet the Wilmot proviso, under another form, lurking in th« 

27 



314 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY, 

mountains of Mexico, in the natural fact to which my honorable 
friend from Massachusetts adverted, as I myself did when I 
hinted that the law of nature was adverse to the introduction 
of slaveiy there. Now, as you find that just desire is to be 
obtained, there is something further, there are other difficulties 
in the way of the adjustment of these unliappy subjects of dif- 
ference, and of obtaining that which is most to be desired, the 
cementing of the bonds of this Union. 

Mr. President, I do not despair, I will not despair, that the 
measure will be carried. And I would almost stake my exist- 
ence, if I dared, that if these measures wliich have been reported 
by the Committee of Thirteen were submitted to the people of the 
United States to-morrow, and their votes were taken upon them, 
there would be nine-tenths of them in favor of the pacification 
which is embodied in that report. 

Mr. President, what have we been looking at? — What are 
we looking at ? The "proviso;" an abstraction always; thrust 
upon the South by the North against all necessities of the case, 
aorainst all the warnings which the North ouoht to have listened 
to coming from the South ; pressed unnecessarily for any 
Northern object; opposed, I admit, by the South, with a degree 
of earnestness uncalled for, I think, by the nature of the pro- 
vision, but with a degree of earnestness natural to the South, 
and which the North itself perhaps would have displayed, if a 
reversal of the conditions of the two sections of the Union 
could have taken place. Why do you of the North press it ? 
You say, because it is in obedience to certain sentiments in 
behalf of human freedom and human rights which you enter- 
tain. You are likely to accomplish those objects at once by the 
progress of events, without pressing this obnoxious measure. — 
You may retort, why is it opposed at the South ? — It is opposed 
at the South because the South feels that, when once legisla- 
tion on the subject of slaverj^ begins, there is no seeing where 
it is to end. Beyin it in the District of Columbia ; bej^in it 
in the Territories of Utah and New Mexico and California ; 
assert your power there to-day, and in spite of all the protesta- 
tions, — and you are not wanting in making protestations, — that 



ON THE COMPROMISE MEASURES. 315 

you have no purpose of extending it to the Southern States, 
what security can you give thera that a new sect will not 
arise with a new version of the Constitution, or with something 
above or below the Constitution, which shall authorize thera 
to carry their notions into the bosoms of the slaveholding Slates, 
and endeavor to emancipate from bondage all the slaves iheie ? 
Sir, the South has felt that her security lies in denying at the 
threshold your right to touch the subject of slavery. She 
said, "Bei-in, and who can tell where vou will end? Let 
one geneialion begin and assert the doctrine for the moment, 
forbearing as they may be in order to secure their present 
objects, their successors may arise with new notions, and new 
principles, and new expositions of the constitution and laws of 
nature, and carry those notions and new principles into the 
bosom of the slaveholding States." The cases, then, gentlemen 
of the North and gentlemen of the South, do not stand upon 
an equal footing. When you, on the one hand, unnecessarily 
press an offensive and unnecessary measure on the South, the 
South repels it from the highest of all human motives of action, 
the security of property and life, and every thing else interesting 
and valuable in life. 

Mr. President, after we have got rid, as I had hoped, of all 
these troubles, — after this Wilmot proviso has disappeared, as 
I trust it may both in this and the other end of the Capitol, — 
after we have been disputing two or three years more, on 
the one hand, about a mere abstraction, and on the other, if it 
were fraught with evil, not so much present as distant and 
future, when we are arriving at a conclusion, what are the 
new difficulties that spring up around us ? Matters of form. 
The purest question of form, that was ever presented to the 
mind of man, — whether we shall combine in one united bill 
three measures, all of which are necessary, or separate them 
into three distinct bills, passing each in its turn, if it can 
be done. 

Mr. President, I trust that the feelings of attachment to the 
Union, of love for its past glory, of anticipation of its future 
benefits and happiness; a fi'aternal feeling which, I trust, will 



316 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

be common throughout all parts of the country; the desire to 
live together in peace and harmony, to prosper as we have 
prospered heretofore, to hold up to the civilized world the 
example of one great and glorious Republic, fulfilling the high 
destiny that belongs to it, demonstrating beyond all doubt 
man's capacity for self-government ; these motives and these 
considerations will, I trust, animate us all, bringing us together 
to dismiss alike questions of abstraction and form, and con- 
summating the act in such a manner as to heal not one only, 
but all the wounds of the country. 



ADDRESS TO KOSSUTU. 



DECEMBER 1851. 



The last public service rendered to his country by Henry Clay, is found 
in his brief address to Louis Kossuth, the exiled leader of tlie Hungarian 
movement for iiitlependence. Mr. Clay warmly symi>atiii2e(J -witli the 
misfortunes of the p<,'0]ile of Huiig:iry and tlicir brave leaders, yet he depre- 
cated the course recommended by Kossutli to the American Government, 
and in a few words explained to him how unwise and inexpedient it 
would be for our Govermneiit to depart from the foreign policy laid down 
by the founders of our institutions. 

The address is full of significance, revealing, as it does, the pure patriot- 
ism of Mr. Clay, and his solicitude for the welfare of his country, — a 
sentiment that animated him to the last hours of his existence. 



Kossuth was received by Mr. Clay in his sick cliamber, at 
the city of Washington. Several distinguished individuals were 
present at the interview. After the usual forms of introductiou, 
Mr. Clay addressed him as follows : 

" I owe you, sir, an apology for not having acceded before to 
the desire you were kind enough to intimate more than once to 
see me ; but really, my health has been so feeble that I did not 
dare to hazard the excitement of so interesting an interview. 
Beside, sir (he added, with some pleasantry), your wonderful 
and fascinating eloquence has mesmerized so large a portion of 
our people wherever you have gone, and even some of our mem- 
bers of Congress (waving his hand toward the two or three 
gentlemen who were present), that I feared to come under its 
influence, lest you might shake my faith in some principles in 
regard to tlie foreign policy of this Government, wliich I have 



long and eonsLanlly cherished. 



(317) 



318 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

"And in regard to this matter you will allow me, I hope, to 



epeak with that sincerity and candor which becomes the interest 
the subject has for you and for myself, and which is due to us 
both, as the votaries of freedom. 

" I trust you will believe me, too, when I tell you that I enter- 
-tain the liveliest sympathies in every struggle for liberty in Hun- 
gary, and in every country ; and in this 1 believe I express the 
universal sentiment of my countrymen. But, sir, for the sake 
of my country, you must allow me to protest against the policy 
you propose to her. Waiving the grave and momentous question 
of the right of one nation to assume the executive power among 
nations for the enforcement of international law, or of the right 
of the United States to dictate to Russia the character of her 
relations with the nations around her, let us come at once to the 
practical consideration of the matter. 

"You tell us yourself, with great truth and propriety, that 
mere sympathy, or the expression of sympathy, can not advance 
your purposes. You require ' material aid.' And indeed it is 
manifest that the mere declarations of sympathy of Congress, or 
of the President, or of the public, would be of little avail, unless 
we were prepared to enforce those declarations by a resort to 
arms, and unless other nations could see that preparation and 
determination upon our part. 

" Well, sir, suppose that war should be the issue of the course 
you propose to us. Could we then effect any thing for you, our- 
selves, or the cause of liberty ? To transport men and arms 
across the ocean in sufficient numbers and quantities to be 
effective against Russia and Austria would be impossible. It is 
a fact which perhaps may not be generally known, that the most 
imperative reason with Great Britain for the close of her last war 
with us, was the immense cost of the transportation and main- 
tenance of forces and munitions of war in such a distant theater, 
and yet she had not perhaps more than thirty thousand men upon 
this continent at any time. Upon land, Russia is invulnerable 
to us, as we are to her. Upon the ocean, a war between Russia 
and this country would result in mutual annoyance to commerce, 
but probably in little else. I learn recently that her war marine 



ADDRESS TO KOSSUTH. 319 

is superior to tliat of any nation in Europe, except perhaps Great 
Britain. Her ports are few, her commerce limited, while we, on 
our part, would offer as a prey to her cruisers a rich and extensive 
commerce. 

" Thus, sir, after effecting nothing in such a war, after aban- 
doning our ancient policy of amity and non-intervention in the 
affairs of other nations, and thus justifying them in abandoning 
the terms of forbearance and non-interference which they have 
hitherto preserved toward us ; after the downfall, perhaps, of 
the friends of liberal institutions in Europe, her despots, imitat- 
ing, and provoked by our fatal example, may turn upon us in 
the hour of our Aveakness and exhaustion, and, with an almost 
equally irresistible force of reason and of arms, they may say 
to us ' You have set us the example. You have quit your own, 
to stand on foreign ground ; you have abandoned the policy 
you professed in the day of your weakness, to interfere in the 
affairs of the people upon this continent, in behalf of those 
principles, the supremacy of which you say, is necessary to 
your prosperity, — to your existence. We, in our turn, believ- 
ing that your anarchical doctrines are destructive of, and that 
monarchical principles are essential to, the peace, security and 
happiness of our subjects, will obliterate the bed which has 
nourished such noxious weeds ; we will crush you as the propa- 
gandist of doctrines so destructive of the peace and good order 
of the world.* 

"The indomitable spirit of our people might and would be 
equal to the emergency, and we might remain unsubdued even 
by so tremendous a combination; but the consequences to us 
would be terrible enough. You must allow me, sir, to speak 
thus freely, as I feel deeply, though my opinion may be of but 
little import, as the expression of a dying man. Sir, the recent 
melancholy subversion of the republican government of France, 
and that enlightened nation voluntarily placing its neck under 
the yoke of despotism, teach us to despair of any present success 
for liberal institutions in Europe. They give us an impressive 
warning not to rely upon others for the vindication of our prin- 
ciples, but to look to ourselves, and to cherish with more care 



320 SPEECHES OF HENRY CLAY. 

than ever the security of our institutions and the preservation of 
our policy and principles. 

"By the policy to which we have adhered since the days of 
Washington, we have prospered beyond precedent, — we have 
done more for the cause of liberty in the world than arms could 
effect. We have showed to other nations the way to greatness 
and happiness ; and, if we but continue united as one people, 
and persevere in the policy which our experience has so clearly 
and triumphantly vindicated, we may in another quarter of a 
century furnish an example which the reason of the world can 
not resist. But if we should involve ourselves in the tangled 
web of European politics, in a war in which we could effect 
nothing, and if in that struggle Hungary should go down, and 
we should go down with her, where, then, would be the last hope 
of the friends of freedom throughout the world ? Far better is 
it for ourselves, for Hungary, and for the cause of liberty, that, 
adhering to our wise, pacific system, and avoiding the distant 
wars of Europe, we should keep our lamp burning brightly on 
this western shore as a light to all nations, than to hazard its 
utter extinction amid the ruins of fallen or falling republics in 
Europe," 



OBITUAKY ADDKESSES 



TO THE UEMOBY 09 



HENRY CLAY. 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATEF.. 



Mr. IIN^DERWOOD, on Wednesday, June 30, 1852, addressed the 
Senate as follows: 

Mr. President — I rise to announce the death of my colleague, 
Mr. Clay. He died at his lodgings, in the National Hotel of 
this city, at seventeen minutes past eleven o'clock yesterday 
morning, in the seventy -sixth year of his age. He expired with 
perfect composure, and without a groan or struggle. 

By his death our country has lost one of its most eminent 
citizens and statesmen ; and, I think, its greatest genius. I 
shall not detain the Senate by narrating the transactions of hia 
long and useful life. His distinguished services as a statesman 
are inseparably connected with the history of his country. As 
Representative and Speaker in the other House of Congress, as 
Senator in this body, as Secretary of State, and as envoy abroad, 
he has, in all these positions, exhibited a wisdom and patriotism 
which have made a deep and lasting impression upon the erate- 
ful hearts of his countrymen. His thoughts and liis actions 
have already been published to the world in written biography ; 
in Congressional debates and reports ; in the journals of the two 
Houses ; and in the pages of American History. They have 
been commemorated by monuments erected on the wayside, 

(321) 



322 EULOGY OF MR. UNDERWOOD. 

They have been engraven on medals of gold. Their memory 
will survive the monuments of marble and the medals of gold ; 
for these are effaced and decay by the friction of ages. But the 
thoughts and aclions of my late colleague have become identified 
with the immortality of ihe human mind, and will pass down, 
from generation to generation, as a portion of our national inher- 
itance, incapable of annihilation so long as Genius has an 
admirer, or Liberty a friend. 

Mr. President, the character of Henry Clat was formed and 
developed by the influence of our free institutions. His phys- 
ical, menial, and moral faculties, were the gift of God. That 
they were greatly superior to the faculties allotted to most men 
can not be questioned. They were not cultivated, improved, and 
directed by a liberal or collegiate education. His respectable 
parents were not wealthy, and had not the means of maintaining 
their children at college. Moreover, his father died when he 
was a boy. At an early period Mr. Clay was thrown upon his 
own resources, without patrimony. He grew up in a clerk's 
office, in Richmond, Virginia. He there studied law. He 
emigrated from his native State and settled in Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, where he commenced the practice of his profession before 
he was of full age. 

The road to wealth, to honor, and fame was open before him. 
Under our Constitution and laws he might freely employ his 
great faculties, unobstructed by legal impediments, and unaided 
by exclusive privileges. Very soon Mr. Clay made a deep and 
favorable impression upon the people among whom he began his 
career. The excellence of his natural faculties was soon dis- 
played. Necessity stimulated him in their cultivation. His 
assiduity, skill, and fidelity in professional engagements, secured 
public confidence. He was elected member of the Legislature 
of Kentucky, in which body he served several sessions pier to 

1806. In that year he was elevated to a seat in the Senate of the 

United States. 

At the bar, and in the General Assembly of Kentucky, Mr. 

Clay first manifested those high qualities as a public speaker, 

which have secured to him so much popular applause and admi- 



EULOGY OF MB. UNDERWOOD. 323 

ration. His physical and mental organization eminently qualified 
him to become a great and impressive orator. His person was 
tall, slender, and commanding. His temperament ardent, fear- 
less, and full of hope. His countenance clear, expressive, and 
variable — indicating the emotion which predominated at the 
momen with exact similitude. His voice, cultivated, and mod- 
ulated in harmony with the sentiment he desired to express, fell 
upon the ear like the melody of enrapturing music. His eye 
beaminv with intellio-ence, and flashiny: with coruscations of 
genius. His gestures and attitudes graceful and natural. These 
personal advantages won the prepossessions of an audience, even 
before his intellectual powers began to move his hearers ; and 
when his strong common st<nse, his profound reasoning, his 
clear conceptions of his subject in all its bearings, and his strik- 
ing and beautiful illustiations, united with such personal quali- 
ties, were brought to the discussion of any question, his audience 
was enraptured, convinced, and led by the orator as if enchanted 
by the lyre of Orpheus. 

No man was ever blessed by his Creator with faculties of a 
higher order of excellence than those given to Mr. Clay. In 
the quickness of his perceptions, and the rapidity with which 
his conclusions were formed, he had few equals and no superior. 
He was eminently endowed with a nice discriminating taste for 
order, symmetry, and beauty. He detected in a moment every 
thing out of place or deficient in his room, upon his farm, in his 
own or the dress of others. He was a skillful judge of the form 
and qualities of his domestic animals, which he delighted to 
raise on his farm. I could give you instances of the quickness 
and minuteness of his keen faculty of observation, which never 
overlooked any thing. A want of neatness and order was oS'en- 
Bive to him. He was particular and neat in his handwriting, and 
his apparel. A slovenly blot or negligence of any sort, met his 
condemnation ; while he was so organized that he attended to, 
and arranged little things to please and gratify his natural love 
for neatness, order, and beauty, his great intellectual faculties 
grasped all the subjects of jurisprudence and politics with a 
facility amounting almost to intuition. As a lawyer he stood at 



324 EULOGY OF MR. UNDERWOOD. 

the head of his profession. As a statesman, his stand at the head 
of the Republican Whig party for nearly half a century, estab- 
lishes his title to pre-eminence among his illustrious associates. 
Mr. Clay was deeply versed in all the springs of human ac- 
tion. He had read and studied biography and history. Shortly 
after I left college, I had occasion to call on him in Frankfort, 
where he was attending court, and well I remember to have 
found him with Plutarch's Lives in his hands. No one better 
than he knew how to avail himself of human motives, and all 
the circumstances which surrounded a subject, or could present 
them with more force and skill to accomplish the object of an 
argument. 

O 

Mr. Clay, throughout his public career, was influenced by 
the loftiest patriotism. Confident in the truth of his convic- 
tions, and the purity of his purposes, he was ardent, sometimes 
impetuous, in the pursuit of objects which he believed essential 
to the general welfare. Those who stood in his way were thrown 
aside without fear or ceremony. He never affected a courtier's 
deference to men or opinions, which he thought hostile to the 
best interests of his country ; and hence he may have wounded 
the vanity of those who thought themselves of consequence. It 
is certain, whatever the cause, that, at one period of his life, Mr. 
Clay might have been referred to as proof that there is more 
truth than fiction in those profound lines of the poet : 

" He who ascends the mountain top shall find 

Its loftiest peaks most wrapped in clouds and snow ; 

He who surpasses or subdues mankind, 

Must look down on the hate of those below : 
Though far above the sun of glory glow. 

And far beneath the earth and ocean spread. 
Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow 

Contending tempests on his naked head, 

And thus reward the toils which to those summits led." 

Calumny and detraction emptied their vials upon him. But 
how a-lorious the chanufe ! He outlived malice and euv)^ He 
lived long enough to prove to the world that his ambition was no 
more than a holy aspiration to make his country the greatest, 



EULOGY OF MK. UNDERWOOD, 325 

most powerful and best governed on the earth. If he desired 
its highest office, it was because the greater power and influence 
resulting from such elevation would enable him to do more than 
he otherwise could for the progress and advancement — first of 
his own countrymen, then of his whole race. His sympathies 
embraced all. The African slave, the Creole of Spanish Amer- 
ica, the children of renovated classic Greece — all families of 
men, without respect to color or clime, found in his expanded 
bosom and comprehensive intellect a friend of their elevation and 
amelioration. Such ambition as that, is God's implantation in 
the human heart for raising the down-trodden nations of the 
earth, and fitting them for regenerated existence in politics, in 
morals, and religion. 

Bold and determined as Mr. Clay was in all his actions, he 
was, nevertheless, conciliating. He did not obstinately adhere 
to things impracticable. If he could not accomplish the best, 
he contented himself with the nighest approach to it. He has 
been the great compromiser of those political agitations and op- 
posing opinions which have, in the belief of thousands, at differ- 
ent times, endangered the perpetuity of our Federal Government 
and Union. 

Mr. Clay was no less remarkable for his admirable social 
qualities than for his intellectual abilities. As a companion, he 
was the delight of his fiiends, and no man ever had better or 
truer. They have loved him from the beginning, and loved him 
to the last. His hospitable mansion at Asliland was always open 
to their reception. No guest ever thence departed without feel- 
ing happier for his visit. But, alas ! that hospitable mansion 
has already been converted into a house of mourning ; already 
has intelligence of his death passed with electric velocity to that 
aged and now widowed lady, who, for more than fifty years, 
bore to him all the endearing relations of wife, and whose feeble 
condition prevented her from joining him in this city, and sooth- 
ing the anguish of life's last scene, by those endearing attentions 
Avhich no one can give so well as woman and a wife. May God 
infuse into her heart and mind the Christian spirit of submission 
under her bereavement ! It can not be long before she may 



326 EULOGY OF MR. UNDERWOOD, 

expect a reunion in Heaven. A nation condoles with her and 
her children on account of their irreparable loss. 

Mr. Clay, from the nature of his disease, declined very grad- 
ually. He bore his protracted suti'erings with great equanimity 
and paiience. On one occasion he said to me, that when death 
was inevitable, and must soon come, and when the sufferer was 
ready to die, he did not perceive the wisdom of praying to be 
"dehvered from sudden death." He thought, under such cir- 
cumstances, the sooner suffering was relieved by death the 
better. He desired the termination of his own sufferings, while 
he acknowledged the duty of patiently waiting and abiding the 
pleasure of God. Mr. Clay frequently spoke to me of his hope 
of eternal life, founded vipon the merits of Jesus Christ as a 
Saviour ; who, as he remaiked, came into the world to bring " life 
and immortality to light." He was a member of the Episco- 
palian Church. In one of our conversations he told me, that, 
as his hour of dissolution approached, he found that his affec- 
tions were concentrating more and more upon his domestic 
circle — his wife and children. In my daily visits he was in the 
habit of askino- me to detail to him the transactions of the Senate. 
This I did, and he manifested much interest in passing occur- 
rences. His inquiries were less frequent as his end approached. 
For the week preceding his death he seemed to be altogether ab- 
sti'acted from the concerns of the world. When he became so 
low that he could not converse without being fatigued, he fre- 
quenlly requested those around him to converse. He would 
then quietly listen. He retained his menial faculties in great 
perfection. His memory remained perfect. He frequently 
mentioned events and conversations of recent occurrence, show- 
ing that he had a perfect recollection of what was said and done. 
He said to me that he was grateful to God for continuing to him 
the blessing of reason, which enabled him to contemplate and 
reflect on his situation. He manifested during his confinement 
the same characteristics which marked his conduct through the 
vigor of his life. He was exceedingly averse to give his 
friends "trouble," as he called it. Some time before he knew 
it, we commenced waiting through the night in an adjoining 



EULOGY OF MR. UNDERWOOD, 327 

room. He said to me, after passing a painful day, "perliaps 
some one had better remain all night in the parlor." From this 
time he knew some friend was constantly at hand ready to attend 
to him. 

Mr. President, the majestic foi-m of Mr. Clay will no more 
grace these Halls. No more shall we hear that voice, which 
has so often thrilled and charmed the assembled Representatives 
of the American people. No more shall we see that wavino- 
hand and eye of light, as when he was engaged in unfolding 
his policy in regard to the varied interests of our gi-owing and 
mighty Republican Empire. His voice is silent on earth for- 
ever. The daikness of death has obscured the luster of his eye. 
But the memory of his services — not only to his beloved Ken- 
tucky, not only to the United States, but for the cause of human 
freedom and progress througliout the world — Avill live through 
future ages, as a bright example, stimulating and encouraging 
his own countrymen, and the people of all nations, in their pa- 
triotic devotions to country and humanity. 

With Christians, there is A^et a nobler and a hijrher thouo-ht 
in regard to Mr. Clay. They will think of him in connection 
with eternity. They will contemplate his immortal spirit, oc- 
cupying its true relative magnitude among the moral stars of 
glory in the presence of God. They will think of him as hav- 
ing fulfilled the duties allotted to him on earth, having been 
regenerated by Divine grace, and having passed through the 
valley of the shadow of death, and reached an everlasting- and 
happy home in that " house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." 

On Sunday morning last, I was watching alone at Mr. Clay's 
bedside. For the last hour he had been unusually quiet, and I 
thought he was sleeping. In that, however, he told me I was 
mistaken. Opening his eyes, and looking at me, he said, '-JMr. 
Underwood, there may be some question where my remains shall 
be buried. Some persons may designate Frankfort. I wish to 
repose at the cemeiery in Lexington, where many of my friends 
and connections are buried." My reply was, "I will endeavor 
to have your wish execuled." 



328 EULOGY OF MB. UNDERWOOD. 

I now ask the Senate to have his corpse transmitted to Lex- 
ington, Kentucky, for sepulture. Let him sleep with the dead 
of that city, in and near which his home has been for more than 
half a century. For the people of Lexington, the living and the 
dead, he manifested, by the statement made to me, a pure and 
holy sympathy, and a desire to cleave unto them as strong as 
that which bound Ruth to Naomi. It was his anxious wish to 
return to them before he died, and to realize what the daughter 
of Moab so strongly felt and beautifully expressed : " Thy people 
shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest 
will I die, and there will I be buried." 

It is fit that the tomb of Henry Clay should be in the City 
of Lexington. In our Revolution, Liberty's first libation-blood 
was poured out in a town of that name in Massachusetts. On 
hearino- it, the pioneers of Kentucky consecrated the name, and 
applied it to the place where Mr. Clay desired to be buried. 
The associations connected with the name harmonize with his 
character ; and the monument erected to his memory at the spot 
selected by him, will be visited by the votaries of Genius and 
Liberty with that reverence which is inspired at the Tomb of 
Washino-ton. Upon that monument let his epitaph be engraved. 

Mr. President, I have availed myself of Dr. Johnson's para- 
phrase of the epitaph on Thomas Hanmer, with a few alterations 
and additions, to express, in borrowed verse, my admiration for 
the life and character of Mr. Clay, and, with this heart-tribute 
to the memory of my illustrious colleague, I conclude my 

remarks : 

Born -when Freedom her stripes and stars unfurl'd, 

When Revolution shook the startled world — 

Heroes and sages taught his brilliant mind 

To know and love the rights of all mankind. 

" In life's first bloom his public toils began, 

At once commenced the Senator and Man : 

In business dext'rous, weighty in debate, 

Near fifty years he labor'd for the State. 

In every speech persuasive wisdom flow'd. 

In every act refulgent virtue glow'd ; 

Suspended faction ceased from rage and strife, 

To hear his eloquence and praise his life. 



EULOGY OF MR. UNDERWOOD. 329 

Besistless merit fixed the Members' choice, 
Who hailed him Speaker with united voice." 
His talents ripening witli advancing years — 
His wisdom growing with his public cares — 
A chosen envoy, war's dark horrors cease. 
And tides of carnage turn to streams of peace. 
Conflicting principles, internal strife. 
Tariff and slavery, disunion rife. 
Are all compromised by his great hand. 
And beams of joy illuminate the land. 
Patriot, Christian, Husband, Father, Friend, 
Thy work of life achieved a glorious end I 

I offer the following resolutions : — 

Resolved, That a committee of six be appointed by the President of the 
Senate, to take order for superintending the funeral of Henry Clay, late a 
member of this body, which will take place to-morrow at twelve o'clock, 
M., and that the Senate will attend the same. 

Resolced, That the members of the Senate, from a sincere desire of show- 
ing every mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, will go into 
mourning for one month, by the usual mode of wearing crape on the left 
arm. 

Resolved, As a further mark of respect entertained by the Senate for the 
memory of Henry Clay, and his long and distinguished services to his 
country, that his remains, in pursuance of the known wishes of his family, 
be removed to tlie place of sepulture selected by himself at Lexington, in 
Kentucky, in charge of the Sergeant-at-Arms, and attended by a com- 
mittee of six Senators, to be appointed by the President of the Senate, 
\rho shall have full power to carry this resolution into effect 
28 



EULOGY OF MR. CASS. 



Me. CASS then addressed the Senate : — 

Mr. President — Again has an impressive warning come 
to teach us, that in the midst of life we are in death. The ordi- 
nary labors of this Hall are suspended, and its contentions 
hushed, before the power of Him, who says to the storm of 
human passion as He said of old to the waves of Galilee — 
Peace, be still. The lessons of His providence, severe as 
they may be, often become merciful dispensations, like that 
which is now spreading sorrow through the land, and which is 
reminding us that we have higher duties to fulfill, and graver 
responsibilities to encounter, than those that meet us here, when 
we lay our hands upon His holy word, and invoke His holy 
name, promising to be fjjilhful to that Constitution which He 
gave us in His mercy, and will withdraw only in the hour of our 
blindness and disobedience, and of His own wrath. 

Another great man has fallen in our land, ripe indeed in years 
and in honors, but never dearer to the American people than 
when called from the theater of his services and renown to that 
final bar where the lofty and the lowly must all meet at last. 

I do not rise, upon this mournful occasion, to indulge in the 
language of panegyric. My regard for the memory of the dead, 
and for the obligations of the living, Avould equally rebuke such 
a couise. The severity of truth is, at once, our proper duty 
and our best consolation. Born during the Revolutionary strug- 
gle, our deceased associate was one of the few remaining public 
men who connect tlie present generation with the actors in the 

trying scenes of that eventful period, and whose names and 
( 3:« ) 



EULOGY OF MR. CASS. 332 

deeds will soon be known only in the history of their country. 
He was another illustration, and a noble one, too, of the glorious 
equality of our inslitulions, which freely offer all their rewards 
to all who justly seek them ; for he was the architect of his own 
fortune, having made his way in life by self-exertion ; and he 
was an early adventurer in the great forest of the West, then a 
world of primitive vegetation, but now the abode of intelligence 
and religion, of prosperity and civilization. But he possessed 
that intellectual superiority which overcomes surrounding ob- 
stacles, and which local seclusion can not long withhold from 
general knowledge and appreciation. 

It is almost half a century since he passed through Chilli- 
cothe, then the seat of Government of Ohio, where I was a 
member of the Legislature, on his way to take his place in this 
very body, which is now listening to this reminiscence, and to 
a feeble tribute of regard from one who then saw him for the 
first time, but who can never forget the impression he produced 
by the charms of his conversation, the frankness of his manner, 
and the high qualities with which he was endowed. Since then 
he has belonged to his country, and has taken a part, and a 
prominent part, both in peace and war, in all the great questions 
affecting her interest and her honor ; and though it has been my 
fortune often to difler from him, yet I believe he was as pure a 
patriot as ever participated in the councils of a nation, anxious 
for the public good, and seeking to promote it, during all the 
vicissitudes of a long and eventful life. That he exercised a 
powerful influence, within the sphere of his action, through the 
whole country, indeed,, we all feel and know ; and we know too, 
the eminent endowments to which he owed this high distinction! 
Frank and fearless in the expression of his opinion, and in the 
performance of his duties, with rare powers of eloquence, which 
never failed to rivet the attention of his auditory, and which 
always commanded admiration, even when they did not carry 
conviction— prompt in decision, and firm in action, and with a 
vigorous intellect, trained in the contests of a stirring life, and 
strengthened by enlarged experience and observation, joined 
wuhal to an ardent love of country, and to great purity of pur- 



332 EULOGY OF MR. CASS. 

pose — these were the elements of his power and success ; and 
we dwell upon them with mournful gratification now, when we 
shall soon follow him to the cold and silent tomb, where we shall 
commit "earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," but with 
the blessed conviction of the truth of that Divine revelation 
which teaches us that there is Life and Hope beyond the narrow 
house, where we shall leave him alone to the mercy of his God 
and ours. 

He has passed beyond the reach of human praise or censure ; 
but the judgment of his cotemporaries has preceded and pro- 
nounced the judgment of history, and his name and fame will 
shed luster upon his country, and will be proudly cherished in 
the hearts of his countiymen for long ages to come. Yes, they 
will be cherished and freshly remembered when these marble 
columns that surround us, so often the witness of his triumph — 
but in a few brief hours, when his mortal frame, despoiled of 
the immortal spirit, shall rest under this dome for the last time, 
to become the witness of his defeat in that final contest, where 
the mightiest fall before the great destroyer — when these marble 
columns shall themselves have fallen, like all the works of man, 
leaving their broken fragments to tell the story of former mag- 
nificence, amid the very ruins which announce decay and 
desolation. 

I was often with him during his last illness, when the world 
and the things of the world were fast fading away before him. 
He knew that the silver cord was almost loosened, and that the 
golden bowl was breaking at the fountain ; but he was resigned 
to the will of Providence, feeling that He who gave has the 
right to take away, in his own good time and manner. After 
his duty to his Creator, and his anxiety for his family, his first 
care was for his country, and his first wish for the preservation 
and perpetuation of the Constitution and the Union — dear to 
him in the hour of death, as they had ever been in the vigor of 
life. Of that Constitution and Union, whose defense in the last 
and greatest crisis of their peril had called forth all his energies, 
and stimulated those memorable and powerful exertions, which 
he who witnessed can never forget, and which no doubt hastened 



EULOGY OF MR. CASS. 333 

the final catastrophe a nation now deplores with a sincerity and 
unanimity not less honorable to themselves than to the memory 
of the object of their affections. And when we shall enter that 
narrow valley, through which he has passed before us, and 
which leads to the judgment-seat of God, may we be able to 
say, through faith in his Son, our Saviour, and in the beautiful 
language of the hymn of the dying Christian — dying, but ever 
living, and triumphant 



" The world recedes, it disappears — 
Heaven opens on my eyes 1 my ears 

With sounds seraphic ring ; 
Lend, lend, your wings I I mount — I fly I 
0, Grave I where is thy victory ? 
0, Death ! where is thy sting ?" 

" Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last hour 
be like his." 



EULOGY OF MR. HUNTER. 



Me. hunter then addressed the Senate :— 

Mr. President — We have heard, with deep sensibility, what 
has just fallen from the Senators who have preceded me. We 
have heard, sir, the voice of Kentucky — and, upon this occa- 
sion, she had a right to speak — in mingled accents of pride and 
sorrow ; for it has rarely fallen to the lot of any State to lament 
the loss of such a son. But, Virginia, too, is entitled to her 
place in this procession ; for she can not be supposed to be un- 
mindful of the tie which bound her to the dead. When the 
earth opens to receive the mortal part which she gave to man, it 
is then that affection is eager to bury in its bosom every recol- 
lection but those of love and kindness. And, sir, when the last 
sensible tie is about to be severed, it is then that we look with 
anxious interest to the deeds of the life, and to the emanations 
of the heart and the mind, for those more enduring monuments 
which are the creations of an immortal nature. 

In this instance, we can be at no loss for these. This land, 
sir, is full of the monuments of his genius. His memory is as 
imperishable as American History itself, for he was one of those 
who made it. Sir, he belonged to that marked class who are the 
men of their century ; for it was his rare good fortune not only 
to have been endowed with the capacity lo do great things, but 
to have enjoyed the opportunities of achieving them. I know, 
sir, it has been said and deplored, that he wanted some of the 
advantages of an early education ; but it, perhaps, has not been 
rememjjered that, in many respects, he enjoyed such opportuni- 
ties for mental training as can rarely fall to the lot of man. He 



( :i-n ) 



EULOGY OF MR. HUNTER. 335 

had not a chance to learn as much from books, but he had such 
opportunities of learning from men as few have ever enjoyed. 
Sir, it is to be remembered that he was reared at a time when 
there was a state of society in the Commonwealth which gave 
him birth, such as has never been seen there before nor since. 
It was his early piivilege to see how justice was administered by 
a Pendleton and a Wythe, with the last of whom he was in the 
daily habit of familiar intercourse. He had constant opportu- 
nities to observe how forensic questions were managed by a Mar- 
shall and a Wickham. He was old enough, too, to have heard 
and to have appreciated the eloquence of a Patrick Henry, and 
of George Keith Taylor. In short, sir, he lived in a society in 
which the examples of a Jefferson, and a Madison, and a Mon- 
roe, were living influences, and on which the setting sun of a 
Washington cast the mild effulgence of its departing rays. 

He was trained, too, as has been well said by the Senator from 
Michigan [Mr. Cass], at a period when the recent Revolutionary 
struggle had given a more elevated tone to patriotism, and im- 
parted a higher cast to public feeling and to public character. 
Such lessons were worth, perhaps, more to him than the whole 
encyclopedia of scholastic learning. Not only were the circum- 
stances of his early training favorable to the development of his 
genius, but the theater upon which he was thrown was emi- 
nently propitious for its exercise. The circumstances of the 
early settlement of Kentucky, the generous, daring, and reckless 
character of the people — all fitted it to be the theater for the dis- 
play of those commanding qualities of heart and mind which he 
so eminently possessed. There can be little doubt but that those 
people, and their chosen leader, exercised a mutual influence 
upon each other ; and no one can be surprised that, with his 
brave spirit and commanding eloquence, and fascinating address, 
he should have led not only there but elsewhere. 

I did not know him, Mr. President, as you did, in the fresh- 
ness of his prime, or in the full maturity of his manhood. I 
did not hear him, sir, as you have heard him, when his voice 
roused the spirit of his countrymen for war — when he cheered 
the drooping, when he I'allied the doubling, through all the 



336 EULOGY OF MR. HUNTEE. 

vicissitudes of a long and doubtful contest. I have never seen 
him, sir, when, from the hight of the Chair, he ruled the House 
of Representatives by the energy of his will, or when upon the 
level of the floor he exercised a control almost as absolute, by 
the mastery of his intellect. When I first knew him, his sun 
had a little passed its zenith. The effacing hand of time had 
just begun to touch the lineaments of his manhood. But yet, 
sir, I saw enough of him to be able to realize what he might 
have been in the prime of his strength, and in the full vigor of 
his maturity. I saw him, sir, as you did, when he led the "op- 
position " during the administration of Mr. Van Buren. I had 
daily opportunities of witnessing the exhibition of his powers 
during the extra session under Mr. Tyler's administration. And 
I saw, as we all saw, in a recent contest, the exhibition of power 
on his part, which was most marvelous in one of his years. 

Mr. President, he may not have had as much of analytic 
skill as some others, in dissecting a subject. It may be, per- 
haps, that he did not seek to look quite so far ahead as some 
who have been most distinguished for political forecast. But it 
may be truly said of Mr. Clay, that he was no exaggerator. He 
looked at events through neither end of the telescope, but sur- 
veyed them with the natural and the naked eye. He had the 
capacity of seeing things as the people saw them, and of feeling 
things as the people felt them. He had, sir, beyond any other 
man whom I have ever seen, the true mesmeric touch of the 
orator — the rare art of transferring his impulses to others. 
Thoughts, feelings, emotions, came from the ready mold of 
his genius, radiant and glowing, and communicated their own 
warmth to every heart which received them. His, too, was 
the power of wielding the higher and intenser forms of passion 
with a majesty and an ease which none but the great masters of 
the human heart can ever employ. It was his rare good fortune 
to have been one of those who form, as it were, a sensible link, 
a living tradition, which connects one age with another, and 
through which one generation speaks its thoughts and feelings, 
and appeals to another. And, unfortunate is it for a country, 
when it ceases to possess such men, for it is to them that we 



EULOGY OF MB. HUNTEK. 337 

chiefly owe the capacity to maintain the unity of the great 
Epos of human history, and preserve the consistency of political 
action. 

Sir, it may be said the grave is still new-made which covers 
the mortal remains of one of those great men who have been 
taken from our midst, and the earth is soon to open to receive 
another. I know not whether it can be said to be a matter of 
lamentation, so far as the dead are concerned, that the thread of 
this life has been clipped when once it has been fully spun. 
They escape the infirmities of age, and they leave an imperish- 
able name behind them. The loss, sir, is not theirs, but ours ; 
and a loss the more to be lamented, that we see none to fill the 
places thus made vacant on the stage of public affairs. But it 
may be well for us, who have much more cause to mourn and to 
lament such deaths, to pause amid the business of life for the 
purpose of contemplating the spectacle before us, and of draw- 
ing the moral from the passing event. It is when death seizes 
for its victims those who are, by "a head and shoulders, taller 
than all the rest," that we feel most deeply the uncertainty of 
human affairs, and that " the glories of our mortal state are 
shadows, not substantial things." It is, sir, in such instances 
as the present that we can best study, by the light of example, 
the true objects of life, and the wisest ends of human pursuit. 
S9 



EULOGY OF MR. HALE. 



Mr. hale then addressed the Senate : — 

Mr. President — I hope I shall not be considered obtrusive, 
if on this occasion for a brief moment, I mingle my humble 
voice with those that, with an ability that 1 shall neither attempt 
nor hope to equal, have sought tj do justice to the worth and 
memory of the deceased, and at the .^iame time appropriately to 
minister to the sympathies and sorrows of a stricken people. 
Sir, it is the teaching of inspiration that "no man liveth and no 
man dieth unto himself." 

There is a lesson taught no less in the death than in the life 
of every man — eminently so in the case of one who has filled a 
large space and occupied a distinguished position in the thoughts 
and regard of his fellow-men. Particularly instructive at this 
time is the event which we now deplore, although the circum- 
stances attending his decease are such as are calculated to 
assuage rather than aggravate the grief which it must neces- 
sarily cause. His time had fully come. The three score and 
ten marking the ordinary period of human life had for some 
years been passed, and, full of years and of honors, he has gone 
to his rest. And now, when the nation is marshaling itself for 
the contest which is to decide "who shall be greatest," as if to 
chasten our ambition, to restrain and subdue the violence of 
passion, to moderate our desires and elevate our hopes, we have 
the spectacle of one who, by the force of his intellect and the 
energy of his own purpose, had achieved a reputation which the 
highest official honors of the Republic might have illustrated, 
but could not have enhanced, laid low in death — as if at the 



( SS.S ) 



EULOGY OF MR. HALE. 339 

very outset of this political contest, on which- the nation is now- 
entering, to teach the ambitious and aspiring the vanity of 
human pursuit and end of earthly honor. But,sir, I do not in- 
tend to dwell on that moral which is taught by the silent lips 
and closed eye of the illustrious dead, with a force such as no 
man ever spoke with ; but I shall leave the event, with its sLent 
and mute eloquence, to impress its own appropriate teachinos on 
the heart. 

In the long and eventful life of Mr. Clat, in the various posi- 
tions which he occupied, in the many posts of public duty 
which he filled, in the many exhibitions which his history af- 
fords of untiring energy, of unsurpassed eloquence, and of de- 
voted patriotism, it would be strange indeed if different minds, 
as they dwell upon the subject, were all to select the same 
incidents of his life, as pre-eminently calculated to challenge 
admiration and respect. 

Sir, my admiration — aye, my affection for Mr. Clay was 

won and secured many years since, even in my school-boy 
days — when his voice of counsel, encouragement and sympathy 
was heard in the other Hall of this Capitol, in behalf of the 
struggling colonies of the southern portion of this continent, who, 
in pursuit of their inalienable rights, in imitation of our own 
forefathers, had unfurled the banner of liberty, and, reo-ardless 
of consequences, had gallantly rushed into that contest where 
"life is lost, or freedom won." And again, sir, when Greece, 
rich in the memories of the past, awoke from the slumber of 
ages of oppression and centuries of shame, and resolved 

" To call her virtues back, and conquer time and fate "— 

there, over the plains of that classic land, above the din of battle 
and the clash of arms, mingling with the shouts of the victors 
and the groans of the vanquished, were heard the thrilling and 
stirring notes of that same eloquence, excited by a sympathy 
which knew no bounds, wide as the world, pleading the cause 
of Grecian liberty before the American Congress, as if to pay 
back to Greece the debi wliich every patriot and orator felt was 



SiO EULOGY OF MR. HALE, 

her due. Sir, in the long and honorable career of the deceased, 
there are many events and circumstances upon which his friends 
and posterity will dwell with satisfaction and pride, but none 
which will preserve his memory with more unfading luster to 
future ages than the course he pursued in the Spanish- Americaa 
and Greek revolutions. 



EULOGY or MR. CLEMENS. 



Mr. CLEMENS then addressed the Senate : — 

Mr. President — I should not have thought it necessary to 
add any thing- to what has ah'eady been said, but for a request 
preferred by some of the friends of the deceased. I should have 
been content to mourn him in silence, and left it to other tongues 
to pronounce his eulogy. What I have now to say shall be 
brief — very brief. 

Mr. President, it is now less than three short years ago since 
I first entered this body. At that period it numbered among its 
members many of the most illustrious statesmen this Republic 
has ever produced, or the world has ever known. Of the liv- 
ing, it is not my purpose to speak ; but in that brief period, 
death has been busy here ; and, as if to mark the feebleness of 
human things, his arrows have been aimed at the highest, the 
mightiest of us all. First, died Calhoun. And well, sir, do I 
remember the deep feeling evinced on that occasion by him 
whose death has been announced here to-day, when he said : " I 
was his senior in years — in nothing else. In the course of 
nature I ought to have preceded him. It has been decreed 
otherwise ; but I know that I shall linger here only a short time, 
and shall soon follow him." It was Genius mourning over his 
younger brother, and too surely predicting his own approaching 
end. 

He, too, is now gone from among us, and left none like him 
behind. That voice, Avhose every tone was music, is hushed 
and still. Tliat clear, bright eye is dim and lusterless, and that 

(311 ) 



342 EULOGY OF MR. CLEMENS. 

breast, where grew and flourished every quality which could 
adorn and dignify our nature, is cold as the clod that soon must 
cover it. A few hours have wrought a mighty change — a 
chano-e for which a lingering illness had, indeed, in some degree 
prepared us ; but which, nevertheless, will still fall upon the 
nation with crushing force. Many a sorrowing heart is now 
asking, as I did yesterday, when 1 heard the first sound of the 

funeral bell — 

"And is lie gone ? — the pure of the purest. 
The hand that upheld our bright banner the surest — 

Is he gone from our struggles away ? 
But yesterday lending a people new life. 
Cold, mute, in the coflSn to-day." 

Mr. President, this is an occasion when eulogy must fail to 
perform its office. The long life which is now ended is a his- 
tory of glorious deeds, too mighty for the tongue of praise. It 
is in the hearts of his countrymen tliat his best epitaph must be 
written. It is in the admiration of a world that his renown must 
be recorded. In that deep love of country which distinguished 
every period of his life, he may not have been unrivaled. In 
loftiness of intellect, he was not without his peers. The skill 
with which he touched every chord of the human heart may 
have been equaled. The iron will, the unbending firmness, the 
fearless courage, which marked his character, may have been 
shared by others. But where shall we go to find all these quali- 
ties united, concentrated, blended into one brilliant whole, and 
shedding a luster upon one single head, which does not dazzle 
the beholder only because it attracts his love and demands his 
worship ? 

I scarcely know, sir, how far it may be allowable, upon an oc- 
casion like this, to refer to party struggles which have left 
wounds not yet entirely healed. I will venture, however, to 
sup-ffest. that it should be a source of consolation to his friends 
that he lived long enough to see the full accomplishment of the 
last great work of his life, and to witness the total disappearance 
of that sectional tempest which threatened to whelm the Repub- 
lic in ruins. Both the great parties of the country have agreed 



EULOGY OF MR. CLEMENS. 343 

to stand upon the platform which he erected, and both of them 
Lave solemnly pledged themselves to maintain, unimpaired, the 
"work of his hands. I doubt not the knowledge of this cheered 
Lim in his dying moments, and helped to steal away the panels 
of dissolution. 

Mr. President, if I knew any thing more that I could say, I 
would gladly utter it. To me, he was something more than 
kind, and I am called upon to mingle a private with the public 
grief. I wish that I could do something to add to his fame. 
But he built for himself a monument of immortality, and left to 
his friends no task but that of soothing their own sorrow for his 
loss. We pay to him the tribute of our tears. More we have 
no power to bestow. Patriotism, honor, genius, courage, have 
all come to strew their garlands about his tomb ; and well they 
may, for he was the peer of them all. 



EULOGY OF MR. COOPER. 



Me. cooper then addressed the Senate :— 

Mr. President — It is not always by words that the living pay 
to the dead the sincerest and most eloquent tribute. The tears 
of a nation, flowing spontaneously over the grave of a public 
benefactor, is a more eloquent testimonial of his worth and of 
the affection and veneration of his countrymen, than the most 
highly- wrought eulogium of the most gifted tongue. The heart 
is not necessarily the fountain of words, but it is always the 
source of tears, whether of joy, gratitude, or grief. But sincere, 
truthful, and eloquent as they are, they leave no permanent 
record of the virtues and greatness of him on whose tomb they 
are shed. As the dews of heaven falling at night are absorbed 
by the earth, or dried up by the morning sun, so the tears of a 
people, shed for their benefactor, disappear without leaving a 
trace to tell to future generations of the services, sacrifices, and 
virtues of him to whose memory they were a grateful tribute. 
But as homage paid to virtue is an incentive to it, it is right 
that the memory of the good, the great and noble of earth should 
be preserved and honored. 

The ambition, Mr. President, of the truly great, is more the 
hope of living in the memory and estimation of future ages 
than of possessing power in their own. It is this hope that 
stimulates them to perseverance ; that enables them to en- 
counter disappointment, ingratitude, and neglect, and to press 
on through toils, privations, and perils to the end. It was not 
the hope of discovering a world, over which he should himself 
exercise dominion, th;U siKffii'lP'l Columbus in all his trials. It 



EL'LOGY OF MR. COOPER. 345 

was not for this he braved danger, disappointment, poverty, and 
reproach. It was not for this he subdued his native pride, 
wandered from kingdom to kingdom, kneeling at the feet of 
princes, a suppliant for means to prosecute his sublime enter- 
prise. It Avas not for this, after having at last secured the 
patronage of Isabella, that he put off in his crazy and ill-ap- 
pointed fleet into unknown seas, to struggle with storms and 
tempests, and the rage of a mutinous crew. It was another and 
nobler kind of ambition that stimulated him to contend with 
terror, superstition, and despair, and to press forward on his 
perilous course, when the needle in his compass, losing its 
polarity, seemed to unite with the fury of the elements and the 
insubordination of his crew in turning him back from his per- 
ilous but glorious undertaking. It was the hope which was 
realized at last, when his ungrateful country was compelled to 
inscribe, as an epitaph on his tomb — 

" COLUMBUS HAS GIVEN A NEW WORLD TO THE KINGDOMS 
OF CASTILE AND LEON," 

that enabled him, at first, to brave so many disappointments, 
and at last, to conquer the multitude of perils that beset his path- 
way on the deep. This, sir, is the ambition of the truly great — 
not to achieve present fame, but future immortality. This being 
the case, it is befitting here to-day, to add to the life of Henrv 
Clay the record of his death, signalized as it is by a nation's 
gratitude and grief. It is right that posterity should learn from 
us, the cotemporaries of the illustrious deceased, that his virtues 
and services were appreciated by his country, and acknowledged 
by the tears of his countrymen poured out upon his grave. 

The career of Henry Clay was a wonderful one. And what 
an illustration of the excellence of our institutions would a retro- 
spect of his life afford ! Born in an humble station, vrithout any 
of the adventitious aids of fortune by which the obstructions on 
the road to fame are smoothed, he rose not only to the most ex- 
alted eminence of position, but likewise to the highest place in 
the affections of his countrymen. Taking into view the disad- 
vantages of his early position, disadvantages against which he 



3-16 EULOGY OF MR. COOPER, 

had always to contend, his career is without a parallel in the 
history of great men. To have seen him a youth, without 
friends or fortune, and Avith but a scanty education, who would 
have ventured to predict for him a course so brilliant and benefi- 
cent, and a fame so well deserved and enduring? Like the 
pine, which sometimes springs up amidst the rocks on the 
mounlain side, with scarce a crevice in which to fix its roots, or 
soil to nourish them, but which, nevertheless, overtops all the 
trees of the surrounding forest, Henry Clay, by his own inhe- 
rent, self-sustaining energy and genius, rose to an altitude of 
fame almost unequaled in the age in which he lived. As an 
oi'ator, legislator, and statesman, he had no superior. All his 
faculties were remarkable, and in remarkable combination. Pos- 
sessed of a brilliant genius and fertile imagination, his judgment 
was sound, discriminating, and eminently practical. Of an ar- 
dent and impetuous temperament, he was nevertheless perse- 
vering and firm of purpose. Frank, bold, and intrepid, he was 
cautious in providing against the contingencies and obstacles 
which might possibly rise up in the road to success. Generous, 
liberal, and entertaining broad and expanded views of national 
policy, in his legislative course he never transcended the limits 
of a wise economy. 

But, Mr. President, of all his faculties, that of making friends 
and attaching them to him, was the most remarkable and extra- 
ordinary. In this respect, he seemed to possess a sort of fas- 
cination, by which all who came into his presence were attracted 
toward, and bound to him by ties which neither time nor cir- 
cumstances had power to dissolve or weaken. In the admiration 
of his friends was the recognition of the divinity of intellect ; in 
their attachment to him, a confession of his generous personal 
qualities and social virtues. 

Of the public services of Mr. Clay, the present occasion 
affords no room for a sketch more extended than that which his 
respected colleague [Mr. Underwood] has presented. It is 
however, sufficient to say, that for more than forty years he has 
been a prominent actor in the drama of American affairs. Dur- 
ing the late war with England, his voice was more potent than 



EULOGY OF MR. COOPER. SIT 

any other in awakening the spirit of the country, infusing confi- 
dence into the people, and rendering available the resources for 
carrying on the contest. In our domestic controversies, threat- 
ening the peace of the country and the integrity of the Union, 
he has always been first to nore danger, as well as to suggest 
the means of averting it. When the waters of the great politi- 
cal deep were upheaved by the tempest of discord, and the ark 
of the Union, freighted with the hopes and destinies of freedom, 
tossing about on the raging billows, and drifting every moment 
nearer to the vortex which threatened to swallow it up, it was his 
clarion voice, rising above the storm, that admonished the crew 
of impending peril, and counseled the way to safety. 

But, Mr. President, devotedly as he loved his country, his 
aspirations Avere not limited to its welfare alone. Wherever free- 
dom had a votary, that votary had a friend in Henry Clay ; 
and in the struggle of the Spanish Colonies for independence he 
uttered words of encouragement, which have become mottoes 
on the banners of freedom in every land. But neither the ser- 
vices which he rendered his own country, nor his wishes for the 
welfare of others, nor his genius, nor the affection of friends, 
could tui-n aside the destroyer. No price could purchase ex- 
emption from the common lot of humanity. Henry Clay, the 
wise, the great, the gifted, had to die ; and his history is 
summed up in the biography which the Russian poet has pre- 
pared for all, kings and serfs — 

* * * "born, living, dying. 
Quitting the still shore for the troubled wave. 
Struggling with storm-clouds, over shipwrecks flying, 
And casting anchor in the silent grave." 

But, though time would not spare him, there is still this of 
consolation : he died peacefully and happy, ripe in renown, full 
of years and of honors, and rich in the affections of his country. 
He had, too, the unspeakable satisfaction of closing his eyes 
while the country he had loved so much and served so well, was 
still in the enjoyment of peace, happiness, union, and pros- 
perity — still advancing in all the elements of wealth, greatness, 
and power. 



348 EULOGY OF MK. COOPER. 

I know, Mr. President, how unequal I have been to the 
apparently self-imposed task of presenting, in an appropriate 
manner, the merits of the illustrious deceased. But if I had re- 
mained silent on an occasion like this, when the hearts of my 
constituents are swelling with grief, I would have been dis- 
owned by them. It is for this reason — that of giving utterance 
to their feelings as well as my own — that I have trespassed on 
the time of the Senate. I would that I could have spoken fitter 
words ; but such as they are, they were uttered by the tongue 
in response to the promptmgs of the heart. 



EULOGY OF ME. SEWARD. 



Mr. SEWARD then addressed the Senate :— 

Mr. President — Fifty years ago, Henry Clay of Virginia, 
already adopted by Kentucky, then as youthful as himself, 
entered the service of his country, a representative in the un- 
pretending Legislature of that rising State ; and having thence- 
forward, with ardor and constancy, pursued the gradual paths of 
an aspiring change through Halls of Congress, Foreign Courts, 
and Executive Councils, he has now, with the cheerfulness of a 
patriot, and the serenity of a Christian, fitly closed his lono- and 
arduous career, here in the Senate, in the full presence of the 
Republic looking down upon the scene with anxiety and alarm, 
not merely a Senator like one of us, who yet remain in the Senate 
House, but filling that character which, though it had no author- 
ity of law, and was assigned without suflfrage, Augustus Caesar, 
nevertheless, declared was above the title of Emperor — Primus 
inter Illustres — the Prince of the Senate. 

Genei-als are tried, Mr. President, by examining the cam- 
paigns they have lost or won, and statesmen by reviewing the 
transactions in which they have been engaged. Hamilton would 
have been unknown to us, had there been no Constitution to be 
created; as Brutus would have died in obscurity, had there 
been no Caesar to be slain. 

Colonization, Revolution, and Organization — three great acts 
in the drama of our National Progress — had already passed 
when the Western Patriot appeared on the public stage. He 
entered in that next division of the majestic scenes, which was 
marked by an inevitable reaction of political forces, a wild strife 

(349) 



350 EULOGY OF MB. SEWARD. 

of factions, and ruinous embarrassments in our foreign relations. 
This transition stage is always more perilous than any other in 
the career of nations, and especially in the career of Republics. 
It proved fatal to the Commonwealth in England. Scarcely any 
of the Spanish-American States have yet emerged from it ; and 
more than once it has been sadly signalized by the ruin of the 
Republican cause in France. 

The continuous administration of Washington and John Adams 
had closed under a cloud, which had thrown a broad, dark 
shadow over the future ; the nation was deeply indebted at home 
and abroad, and its credit was prostrate. The revolutionary 
factions had given place to two inveterate parties, divided by a 
gulf Avhich had been worn by the conflict in which the Consti- 
tution was adopted, and made broader and deeper by a war of 
prejudices concerning the merits of the belligerents in the great 
European struggle that then convulsed the civilized world. Our 
extraordinary political system was little more than an ingenious 
theory, not yet practically established. The union of the Slates 
was as yet only one of compact ; for the political, social, and 
commercial necessities to wdiich it was so marvelously adapted, 
and which, clustering thickly upon it, now render it indissoluble, 
had not then been broadly disclosed, nor had the habits of acqui- 
escence, and ihe sentiments of loyalty, always slow of growth, 
fully ripened. The bark that had gone to sea, thus unfurnished 
and untried, seemed quite certain to founder by reason of its own 
inherent frailty, even if it should escape unharmed in the great 
conflict of nations, which acknoAvledged no claims of justice, 
and tolerated no pretensions of neutrality. Moreover, the terri- 
tory possessed by the nation was inadequate to commercial 
exigencies and indispensable social expansion ; and yet no pro- 
vision had been made for enlargement, nor for extending the 
political system over distant regions, inhabited or otherwise, 
which must inevitably be acquired. Nor could any such acqui- 
sition be made, without disturbing the carefully-adjusted balance 
of powers among the members of the Confederacy. 

These difficulties, Mr. President, although they grew less 
with time and by slow degrees, continued throughout the whole 



EULOGY OF MR. SEWARD. 351 

life of the statesman whose obsequies we are celebrating. Be it 
known, then, and I am sure that history will confirm the in- 
struction, that Conservatism was the interest of the nation, and 
the responsibility of its rulers, during the period in which he 
flourished. He was ardent, bold, generous, and even ambitious ; 
and yet, with a profound conviction of the true exigencies of' the 
country, like Alexander Hamilton, he disciplined himself and 
trained a restless nation, that knew only self-control, to the 
rigorous practice of that often humiliating conservatism, which 
its welfare and security in that particular crisis so imperiously 
demanded. 

It could not happen, sir, to any citizen to have acted alone, 
nor even to have acted always the most conspicuous part in 
a trying period so long protracted. Henry Clay, therefore, 
shared the responsibilities of Government with not only his 
proper cotemporaries, but also survivors of the Revolution, as 
well as also many who will succeed himself. Delicacy forbids 
the naming of those who retain their places here, but we may, 
without impropriety, recall among his compeers a Senator of 
vast resources and inflexible resolve, who has recently withdrawn 
from this Chamber, but I trust, not altogether from public life 
(Mr. Benton); and another, who, surpassing all his cotempora- 
ries within his country, and even throughout the world, in 
proper eloquence of the forum, now in autumnal years, for a 
second time dio-nities and adorns the hio-hest seat in the Execu- 
tive Council (Mr. Webster). Passing by these eminent and 
noble men, the shades of Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, Jack- 
son, Monroe, and Jefl"erson, rise up before us — statesmen, whose 
living and local fame has ripened already into historical and 
world-wide renown. 

Among geniuses so lofty as these, Henry Clay bore a 
part in regulating the constitutional freedom of political de- 
bate ; establishing that long-contested and most important line 
which divides the sovereignty of the several Slates from 
that of the States confederated ; assertino- the riyht of Neu- 
trality, and vindicating it by a wry against Gieat Britain, 
when ihat just but extreme measure became ^necessary ; adjust- 



352 EULOGY OF MR. SEWAED. 

ing the terms on which that perilous yet honorable contest was 
brought to a peaceful close ; perfecting the Army and the Navy, 
and the national fortifications ; settling the fiscal and financial 
policy of the Government in more than one crisis of apparently 
threatened revolution ; asserting and calling into exercise the 
powers of the Government for making and improving internal 
communications between the States ; arousing and encouraging 
the Spanish-American Colonies on this continent to throw off the 
foreign yoke, and to organize Governments on principles con- 
genial to our own, and thus creating external bulwarks for our 
own national defense ; establishing equal and impartial peace 
and amity with all existing maritime Powers ; and extending 
the constitutional organization of Government over all the vast 
regions secured in his lifetime by purchase or by conquest, 
whereby the pillars of the Republic have been removed from the 
banks of the St. Mary to the borders of the Rio Grande, and 
from the margin of the Mississippi to the Pacific coast. We may 
not yet discuss here the wisdom of the several measures which 
have thus passed in review before us, nor of the positions which 
the deceased statesman assumed in regard to them, but we may, 
without ofi'ense, dwell upon the comprehensive results of them all. 
The Union exists in absolute integrity, and the Republican 
system is in complete and triumphant development. Without 
having relinquished any part of their individuality, the States 
have more than doubled already, and are increasing in numbers 
and political strength and expansion, more rapidly than ever 
before. Without having absorbed any State, or having even 
encroached on any State, the Confederation has opened itself, so 
as to embrace all the new members that have come, and now, 
with capacity for further and indefinite enlargements, has be- 
come fixed, enduring, and perpetual. Although it was doubted 
only half a century ago whether our political system could be 
maintained at all, and whether, if maintained, it could guarantee 
the peace and happiness of society, it stands now confessed by 
the world the form of Government not only most adapted to Em- 
pire, but also most congenial with the constitution of Human 
Nature. 



EULOGY OF MR. SEWARD. 353 

When we consider that the nation has been conducted to this 
haven, not only through stormy seas, but aUogether, also, -with- 
out a course and without a star : and when we consider, more- 
over, the sum of happiness that has already been enjoyed by the 
American people, and still more the influence which the g-reat 
achievement is exerting for the advancement and melioration of 
the condition of mankind, we see at once that it might have 
satisfied the highest ambition to have been, no matter how hum- 
bly, concerned in so great transaction. 

Certainly, sir, no one will assert that Henbv Clay in that 
transaction performed an obscure or even a common part. On 
the contrary, from the day on which he entered the public 
service until that on which he passed the gates of death, he was 
never a follower, but always a leader ; and he marshaled either 
the party which sustained or that which resisted every great 
measure, equally in the Senate and among the people. He led 
where duty seemed to him to indicate, reckless whether he en- 
countered one President or twenty Presidents, whether he was 
opposed by factions or even by the whole people. Hence, it 
has happened, that although that people are not yet agreed 
among themselves on the wisdom of all, or perhaps of even 
any of his great measures, yet they are, nevertheless, unani- 
mous in acknowledging that he was at once the greatest, the 
most faithful, and the most reliable of their statesmen. Here 
the effort at discriminating praise of Hexry Clay, in regard 
to his public policy, must stop in this place, even on this sad 
occasion which awakens the ardent liberality of his generous 
survivors. 

But his personal qualities may be discussed without appre- 
hension. What were the elements of the success of that extra- 
ordinary man ? You, sir, knew him longer and better than I, 
and I would prefer to hear you speak of them. He was indeed 
eloquent — all the world knows that. He held the keys to the 
hearts of his countrymen, and he turned the wards within them 
with a skill attained by no other master. 

But eloquence was, nevertheless, only an instrument, and one 
of many that he used. His conversation, his gesture, his veiy 
30 



354 EULOGY OF MR. SEWARD. 

look, was persuasive, seductive, irresistible. And his appliance 
of all these was courteous, patient, and indefatigable. Defeat 
only inspired him with new resolution. He divided opposition 
by his assiduity of address, while he rallied and strengthened 
his own bands of supporters by the confidence of success which, 
feeling himself, he easily inspired among his followers. His 
affections were high, and pure, and generous, and the chiefest 
among them was that which the great Italian poet designated as 
the charity of native land. And in him that charity was an en- 
during and over-powering enthusiasm, and it influenced all his 
sentiments and conduct, rendering him more impartial between 
conflicting interests and sections than any other statesman who 
has lived since the Revolution. Thus, with very great versa- 
tility of talent and the most catholic equality of favor, he iden- 
tified every question, whether of domestic administration or 
foreign policy, with his own great name, and so became a per- 
petual Tribune of the people. He needed only to pronounce in 
favor of a measure or against it, here, and immediately popular 
enthusiasm, excited as by a magic wand, was felt, overcoming 
all opposition in the Senate Chamber. 

In this way he wrought a change in our political system, that 
I think was not foreseen by its founders. He converted this 
branch of the Legislature from a negative position, or one of 
equilibrium between the Executive and the House of Represent- 
atives, into the active ruling power of the Republic. Only time 
can disclose whether this great innovation shall be beneficent, 
or even permanent. 

Certainly, sir, the great lights of the Senate have set. The 
obscuration is not less palpable to the country than to us, who 
are left to grope our uncertain way here, as in a labyrinth, op- 
pressed with self-distrust. The times, too, present new embar- 
rassments. We are rising to another and a more sublime stage 
of natural progress — that of expanding wealth and rapid terri- 
torial aofo-randizement. Our institutions throw a broad shadow 
across the St. Lawrence, and stretching beyond the valley of 
Mexico, reaches even to the plains of Central America ; while 
the Sandwich Islands and the shores of China recognize its ren- 



EULOGY OF MR. SEWARD. 355 

ovating influence. Wherever that influence is felt, a desire for 
protection under those institutions is awakened. Expansion 
seems to be regulated, not by any difficulties of resistance, but by 
the moderation which results from our own internal constitution. 
No one knows how rapidly that restraint may give way. Who 
can tell how far or how fast it ought to yield ? Commerce has 
brought the ancient continents near to us, and created necessi- 
ties for new positions — perhaps connections or colonies there — 
and with the trade and friendship of the elder nations their con- 
flicts and collisions are brought to our doors and to our hearts. 
Our sympathy kindles, our indifference extinguishes the fire of 
freedom in foreign lands. Before we shall be fully conscious 
that a change is going on in Europe, we may find ourselves once 
more divided by that eternal line of separation that leaves on the 
one side those of our citizens who obey the impulses of sympa- 
thy, while on the other are found those who submit only to the 
counsels of prudence. Even prudence will soon be required to 
decide whether distant regions, East and West, shall come un- 
der our own protection, or be left to aggrandize a rapidly spread- 
ing and hostile domain of despotism. 

Sir, who among us is equal to these mighty questions ? I 
fear there is no one. Nevertheless, the example of Henry Clay 
remains for our instruction. His genius has passed to the 
realms of light, but his virtues still live here for our emulation. 
With them there will remain also the protection and favor of the 
Most High, if by the practice of justice and the maintenance of 
freedom we shall deserve it. Let then, the bier pass on. With 
sorrow, but not without hope, we will follow the revered form 
that it bears to its final resting-place ; and then, when that grave 
opens at our feet to receive such an inestimable treasure, we will 
invoke the God of our fathers to send us new guides, like him 
that is now withdrawn, and give us wisdom to obey their in- 
structions. 



EULOGY OF ME. JONES. 



Mr. JONES then addressed the Senate : — 

Mr. President — Of the vast number who mourn the depart- 
ui'e of the great man whose voice has so often been heard in 
this Hall, I have peculiar cause to regret that dispensation 
which has removed him from among us. He was the guardian 
and director of my collegiate days ; four of his sons were my 
collegemates and my warm friends. My intercourse with the 
father was that of a youth and a friendly adviser. I shall 
never cease to feel grateful to him — to his now heart-stricken 
and bereaved widow and children, for their very many kind- 
nesses to me during four or five years of my life. I had 
the pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with him, first, as 
a delegate in Congress, while he was a member of this body 
from 1835 to 1839, and again in 1848, as a member of this 
branch of Congress ; and during the whole of which period, 
some eight years, none but the most kindly feeling existed 
between us. 

As an humble and unimportant Senator, it was my fortune to 
co-operate with him throughout the whole of the exciting ses- 
sion of 1 849-' 50 — the labor and excitement of which is said to 
have precipitated his decease. That co-operation did not end 
with the accordant vote on this floor, but, in consequence of the 
unyielding opposition to the series of measures known as the 
" Compromise," extended to many private meetings held by its 
friends, ai all p( wliich Mr. Clay was present. And whether 

( 350) 



EULOGY OF MR. JONES. 357 

in public or private life, he everywhere continued to inspire me 
with the DQOst exalted estimate of his patriotism and statesman- 
ship. Never shall I forget the many ardent appeals he made to 
Senators, in and out of the Senate, in favor of the settlement 
of our then unhappy sectional differences. 

Immediately after the close of that memorable session of Con- 
gress, during which the nation beheld his great and almost su- 
perhuman efforts upon this floor to sustain the wise counsels of 
the "Father of his Country," I accompanied him home to Ash- 
land, at his invitation, to revisit the place where my happiest 
days had been spent, with the friends who there continued to 
reside. During that, to me, most agreeable and instructive 
journey, in many conversations he evinced the utmost solicitude 
for the welfare and honor of the Republic, all tending to show 
that he believed the happiness of the people and the cause of 
liberty throughout the world depended upon the continuance 
of our glorious Union, and the avoidance of those sectional dis- 
sensions which could but alienate the affections of one portion 
of the people from another. With the sincerity and fervor of a 
true patriot, he warned his companions in that journey to with- 
hold all aid from men who labored, and from every cause which 
tended, to sow the seeds of disunion in the land ; and to oppose 
such, he declared himself willing to forego all the ties and asso- 
ciations of mere party. 

At a subsequent period, sir, this friend of my youth, at 
my earnest and repeated entreaties, consented to take a sea 
voyage from New York to HaA^ana. He remained at the latter 
place a fortnight, and then returned by New Orleans to Ash- 
land. That excursion by sea, he assured me, contributed 
much to relieve him from the sufferings occasioned by the 
disease which has just terminated his eventful and glorious 
life. Would to Heaven that he could have been persuaded to 
abandon his duties as a Senator, and to have remained during 
the past winter and spring upon that Island of Cuba ! The 
country would not now, perhaps, have been called to mourn 
his loss. 



358 EULOGY OF MR. JONES. 

In some matters of policy connected with the administration 
of our General Government, I have disagreed with him, yet the 
purity and sincerity of his motives I never doubted ; and as a 
true lover of his country, as an honorable and honest man, I 
trust his example will be reverenced and followed by the m»u of 
thJs, and of succeeding generations. 



EULOGY OF ME. BROOKE. 



Me. BROOKE then addressed the Senate :— 

Mr. President — As an ardent, personal admirer and political 
friend of the distinguished dead, I claim the privilege of adding 
my humble tribute of respect to his memory, and of joining- in 
the general expression of sorrow that has gone forth from this 
Chamber. Death, at all times, is an instructive monitor, as well 
as a mournful messenger ; but when his fatal shaft hath stricken 
down the great in intellect and renown, how doubly impressive 
the lesson that it brings home to the heart, that the grave is the 
common lot of all — the great leveler of all earthly distinctions ! 
But at the same time we are taught, that, in one sense, the good 
and great can never die ; for the memory of their virtues and 
their bright example will live through all coming time, in an im- 
mortality that blooms beyond the grave. The consolation of this 
thought may calm our sorrow ; and in the language of one of 
our own poets, it may be asked — 

"Why weep ye, then, for him, who having run 
The bound of man's appointed years, at last, 
Life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labors done, 

Serenely to his final rest has pass'd ; 
While the soft memory of his virtues yet 
Lingers, like twilight hues when the bright sun has set?" 

It will be doing no injustice, sir, to the living or the dead, to 
say, that no better specimen of the true American character can 
be found in our history than that of Mr. Clay. With no ad- 
ventitious advantages of birth or fortune, lie won his wav bv the 

( 359 ) " 



EULOGY OF MR. BROOKE. 

efforts of his own genius to the highest distinction and honor. 
Ardently attached to the principles of civil and religious liberty, 
patriotism was with him both a passion and a sentiment — a pas- 
sion that gave energy to liis ambition, and a sentiment that per- 
vaded all his thoughts and actions, concentrating them upon his 
country as the idol of his heart. The bold and manly frankness 
in the expression of his opinions which always characterized 
him, has often been the subject of remark ; and in all his victo- 
ries it may be truly said, he never "stooped to conquer." In 
his long and brilliant political career, personal considerations 
never for a single instant caused him to swerve from the sti-ict 
line of duty, and none have ever doubted his deep sincerity in 
that memorable expression to Mr. Preston, "Sir, I had rather be 
rio-ht than be President." 

This is not the time nor occasion, sir, to enter into a detail of 
the public services of Mr. Clay, interwoven, as they are, with 
the history of the country for half a century ; but I can not re- 
fiain from adverting to the last crowning act of his glorious 
life — his great effort in the Thirty-first Congress, for the preser- 
vation of the peace and integrity of this great Republic, as it 
was this effort that shattered his bodily strength, and hastened 
the consummation of death. The Union of the States, as being 
essential to our prosperity and happiness, was the paramount 
proposition in his political creed, and the slightest symptom of 
danger to its perpetuity filled him with alarm, and called forth 
all the energies of his body and mind. In his earlier life he 
had met this dano-er and overcome it. In the conflict of con- 
tending factions it again appeared ; and coming forth from the 
repose of private life, to which age and infirmity had carried 
him, Avith unabated strength of intellect, he again entered upon 
the arena of political strife, and again success crowned his 
efforts, and peace and harmony were restored to a distracted 
people. But unequal to the mighty struggle, his bodily strength 
sank beneath it, and he retii-ed from the field of his glory to 
yield up his life as a holy sacrifice to his beloved country. It 
has well been said, that peace has its victories as well as war ; 
and how bright upon the page of history will be the record of 



EULOGY OF MR. BROOKE. 361 

this great victory of intellect, of reason, and of moral suasion, 
over the spirit of discord and sectional animosities ! 

We this day, Mr. President, commit his memory to the re- 
gard and affection of his admiring countrymen. It is a conso- 
lation to them, and to us, to know that he died in full possession 
of his glorious intellect, and, what is better, in the enjoyment 
of that "peace which the world can neither give nor take away." 
He sank to rest as the full-orbed king of day, unshorn of a 
single beam, or rather like the planet of morning, his brightness 
was but eclipsed by the opening to him of a more full and per- 
fect day — 

" No waning of fire, no paling of ray. 
But rising, still rising, as passing away. 
Farewell, gallant eagle, thou 'rt buried in light — 
God speed thee to Heaven, lost star of o»ur night." 

The resolutions submitted by Mr. Underwood were then 
unanimously agreed to. 

Ordered, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to 
the House of Representatives. 

On motion by Mr. Underwood 

Resolved, That, as an additional mark of respect to the mem- 
ory of the deceased, the Senate do now adjourn. 
31 



if-' 



OBITUARY HONORS 



TO THE MEMORY 



HENRY CLAY. 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



The Journal having been read, a message was received from 
the Senate, by Asbury Dickins, Esq., its Secretary, communi- 
cating information of the death of Henry Clay, late Senator 
from the Slate of Kentucky, and the proceedings of the Senate 
thereon. 

The resolutions of the Senate havinsf been read — 

Mr. BRECKINRIDGE rose and said :— 

Mr. Speaker — I rise to perform the melancholy duty of an- 
nouncing to this body the death of Henrt Clat, late a Senator 
in Congress from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. 

Mr. Clay expired at his lodgings in this city yesterday morn- 
ing, at seventeen minutes past eleven o'clock, in the seventy- 
sixth year of his age. His noble intellect was unclouded to the 
last. After protracted sufferings, he passed away without pain ; 
and so gently did the spirit leave his frame, that the moment of 
departure was not observed by the friends who watched at his 
bedside. His last hours were cheered by the presence of an 
affectionate son ; and he died surrounded by friends who, during 
his long illness, had done all that affection could suggest to 
soothe his suflerino-s. 

O 

( 363) 



3G4 EULOGY OF MK. BRECKINRroOE. 

AUhougli this sad event has been expected for many wseks, 
the shock it produced, and the innumerable tributes of respect 
to his memory exhibited on every side, and in every form, prove 
the depth of the public sorrow, and the greatness of the public 
loss. 

Impenshably associated as his name has been for fifty years 
with every great event aflecting the fortunes of our country, it 
is difficult to realize that he is indeed gone for ever. It is diffi- 
cult to feel that we shall see no more his noble form within these 
walls — that we shall hear no more his patriot tones, now rous- 
ing his countrymen to vindicate their rights against a foreign 
foe, now imploring them to preserve concord among them- 
selves. We shall see him no more. The memory and the 
fruits of his services alone remain to us. Amidst the general 
gloom the Capitol itself looks desolate, as if the genius of the 
place had departed. Already the intelligence has reached almost 
every quarter of the Republic, and a great people mourn with 
us, to-day, the death of their most illustrious citizen. Sympa- 
thizing, as we do, deeply, with his family and friends, yet 
private affliction is absorbed in the general sorrow. The spec- 
tacle of a whole community lamenting the loss of a great man, 
is far more touching than any manifestation of private grief. In 
speaking of a loss which is national, I will not attempt to de- 
scribe the universal burst of grief with which Kentucky will 
receive these tidings. The attempt would be vain to depict the 
gloom that will cover her people, when they know that the pillar 
of fire is removed, which has guided their footsteps for the life 
of a generation. 

It is known to the country that, from the memorable session 
of 1849-'50, Mr. Clay's health gradually declined. Although 
several years of his Senatorial term remained, he did not pro- 
pose to continue in the public service longer than the present 
session. He came to Washington chiefly to defend, if it should 
become necessary, the measures of adjustment, to the adoption 
of which he so largely contributed ; but the condition of his 
health did not allow him, at any time, to participate in the dis- 
cussions of the Senate. Through tlie winter he was confined 



EULOGY OF MR. BRECKINRIDGE. 365 

almost wholly to his room, with slight changes in his condition, 
but gradually losing the remnant of his strength. Through the 
long and dreary winter he conversed much and cheerfully with 
his friends, and expressed a deep interest in public affairs. 
Although he did not expect a restoration to health, he cherished 
the hope that the mild season of spring would bring to him 
strength enough to return to Ashland, and die in the bosom of 
his family. But, alas ! spring, that brings life to all nature, 
brought no life nor hope to him. After the month of March his 
vital powers rapidly wasted, and for weeks he lay patiently 
awaiting the stroke of death. But the approach of the destroyer 
had no terrors for him. No clouds overhung his future. He 
met the end with composure, and his pathway to the grave was 
brightened by the immortal hopes which spring from the Chris- 
tian faith. 

Not long before his death, having just returned from Ken- 
tucky, I bore to him a token of affection from his excellent wife. 
Never can I forget his appearance, his manner, or his words. 
After speaking of his family, his friends, and his country, he 
changed the conversation to his own future, and looking on me 
with his fine eye undimmed, and his voice full of its original 
compass and melody, he said, " I am not afraid to die, sir. I 
have hope, faith, and some confidence. I do not think any man 
can be entirely certain in regard to his future state, but I have 
an abiding trust in the merits and mediation of our Saviour." 
It will assuage the grief of his family to know that he looked 
hopefully beyond the tomb, and a Christian people will rejoice 
to hear that such a man, in his last hours, reposed with sim- 
plicity and confidence upon the promises of the Gospel. 

It is the custom, on occasions like this, to speak of the parent- 
age and childhood of the deceased, and to follow him, step by 
btep, through life. I will not attempt to relate even all the great 
events of Mr. Clay's life, because they are familiar to the whole 
countiy, and it would be needless to enumerate a long list of 
public services which form a part of American History. 

Beginning life as a friendless boy, with few advantages, save 
those conferred by nature, while vet a minor he left Virginia, 



366 EULOGY OF MR. BKECKINRIDGE. 

the State of his birth, and commenced the practice of law at 
Lexington, in Kentucky. At a bar remarkable for its numbers 
and talent, Mr. Clay soon rose to the first rank. At a very 
eai'ly age he was elected from the County of Fayette to the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Kentucky, and was the Speaker of that body. 
Coming into the Senate of the United States, for the first time, 
in 18G6, he entered upon a parliamentary career the most bril- 
liant and successful in our annals. From that time he remained 
habitually in the public eye. As a Senator, as a member of this 
House and its Speaker, as a representative of his country 
abroad, and as a high officer in the executive department of the 
Government, he was intimately connected for tifiy years with 
every great measure of American policy. Of the mere party 
measures of this period I do not propose to speak. Many of 
them have passed away, and are remembered only as the occa- 
sions for the great intellectual efforts which marked their discus- 
sion. Concerning others, opinions are still divided. They will 
go into history, with the reasons on either side rendered by the 
greatest intellects of the time. 

As a leader in a deliberative body, Mr. Clay had no equal in 
America. In him, intellect, person, eloquence, and courage, 
united to form a character fit to command. He fired with his 
own enthusiasm, and controlled by his amazing will, individuals 
and masses. No reverse could crush his spirit, nor defeat re- 
duce him to despair. Equally erect and dauntless in prosperity 
and adversity, when successful he moved to the accomplishment 
of his purposes with severe resolution ; when defeated, he rallied 
his broken bands around him, and from his eagle eye shot along 
their ranks the contaoion of his own courao-e. Destined for a 
leader, he everywhere asserted his destiny. In his long and 
eventful life he came in contact with men of all ranks and pro- 
fessions, but he never felt that he was in the presence of a man 
superior to himself. In the assemblies of the people, at the bar, 
in the Senate — everywhere within the circle of his personal pre- 
sence he assumed and maintained a position of pre-eminence. 

But the supremacy of Mr. Clay, as a party leader, was not 
his only, nor his highest title to renown. That title is to be 



EULOGY OF MR. BRECKINRIDGE. 3g7 

found in the purely patriotic spirit which, on great occasions, 
alwaj^s signalized his conduct. We have had no statesman, 
who in periods of real and imminent public peril, has exhibited 
a more genuine and enlarged patriotism than Henry Clay. 
Whenever a question presented itself actually threatening the 
existence of the Union, Mr. Clay, rising above the passions of 
the hour, always exerted his powers to solve it peacefully and' 
honorably. Although more liable than most men, from his im- 
petuous and ardent nature, to feel strongly the passion common 
to us all, it was his rare faculty to be able to subdue them in a 
great crisis, and to hold toward sections of the confederacy the 
language of concord and brotherhood. 

Sir, it will be a proud pleasure to every true American heart 
to remember the great occasions when Mr. Clay has displayed 
a sublime patriotism — when the ill-temper engendered by the 
times, and the miserable jealousies of the day, seemed to have 
been driven from his bosom by the expulsive power of nobler 
feelings — when every throb of his heart was given to his 
country, every effort of his intellect dedicated to her service. 
Who does not remember the three periods when the American 
system of Government was exposed to its severest trials ; and 
who does not know that when history shall relate the struo-- 
gle which preceded, and the dangers which were averted by the 
Missouri Compromise, the Tariff Compromise of 1 832, and the 
Adjustment of 1 850, the same pages will record the genius, the 
eloquence, and the patriotism of Henry Clay ? 

Nor was it in Mr. Clay's nature to lag behind until measures 
of adjustment were matured, and then come forward to swell a 
majority. On the contrary, like a bold and real statesman, he 
was ever among the first to meet the peril, and hazard his fame 
upon the remedy. It is fresh in the memory of us all that, 
when lately the fury of sectional discord threatened to sever 
the confederacy, Mr. Clay, though withdrawn from public 
life, and oppressed by the burden of years, came back to the 
Senate — the theater of his glory — and devoted the remnant of 
his strength to the sacred duty of preserving the union of the 
States. 



368 EULOGY OP MB, BKECKINKIDGK. 

With cliaracteristic courage he took the lead in proposing a 
scheme of settlement. But while he was willing to assume the 
responsibility of proposing a plan, he did not, with petty am- 
bition, insist upon its adoption to the exclusion of other modes ; 
but, taking his own as the starting point for discussion and 
practical action, he nobly labored with his compatriots to change 
and improve it in such form as to make it an acceptable adjust- 
ment. Throughout the long and arduous struggle, the love of 
country expelled from his bosom the spirit of selfishness, and 
Mr. Clay proved, for the third time, that though he was am- 
bitious and loved glory, he had no ambition to mount to fame 
on the confusions of his country. And this conviction is 
lodged in the hearts of the people ; the party measures and the 
party passions of former times have not, for several years, in- 
terposed between Mr. Clay and the masses of his countrymen. 
After 1850, he seemed to feel that his mission was accom- 
plished ; and, during the same period, the regards and affections 
of the American people have been attracted to him in a re- 
markable degree. For many months, the warmest feelings, the 
deepest anxieties of all parties centered upon the dying states- 
man ; the glory of his great actions shed a mellow luster on 
his declining years ; and to fill the measure of his fame, his 
countrymen, weaving for him the laurel wreath, with common 
hands, did bind it about his venerable brows, and send him 
crowned, to history. 

The life of Mr. Clat, sir, is a striking example of the abid- 
ino- fame which surely awaits the direct and candid statesman. 
The entire absence of equivocation or disguise, in all his acts, 
was his master-key to the popular heart ; for while the people 
will forgive the errors of a bold and open nature, he sins past 
forgiveness, who deliberately deceives them. Hence, Mr. Clay, 
though often defeated in his measures of policy, always secured 
the respect of his opponents without losing the confidence of 
his friends. He never paltered in a double sense. The coun- 
try was never in doubt as to his opinions or his purposes. In 
all the cont€Sts of his time, his position on great public ques- 
tions, was as clear as tlie sun in a cloudless sky. Sir, standing 



EULOGY OF Mli, BRECKINRIDGE. 369 

by the grave of this great man, and considering these things, 
how contemptible does appear the mere legerdemain of politics ! 
What a reproach is his life on that false policy which would 
trifle with a great and upright people ! If I were to write his 
epiiaph, I would inscribe, as the highest eulogy, on the stone 
which shall mark his resting-place, "Here lies a man who was 
in the public service for fifty years, and never attempted to 
deceive his countrymen." 

While the youth of America should imitate his noble qualities, 
they may take courage from his career, and note the high proof 
it affords that, under our equal institutions, the avenues to 
honor are open to all. Mr. Clay rose by the force of his own 
genius, unaided by power, patronage, or wealth. At an age 
when our young men are usually advanced to the higher schools 
of learning, provided only with the rudiments of an English 
education, he turned his steps to the West, and amidst the rude 
collisions of a border life, matured a character whose hio-hest 
exhibitions were destined to mark eras in his country's history. 
Beginning on the frontiers of American civilization, the orphan 
boy, supported only by the consciousness of his own powers, 
and by the confidence of the people, surmounted all the bar- 
riers of adverse fortune, and won a glorious name in the annals 
of his country. Let the generous youth, fired with honor- 
able ambition, remember that the American system of govern- 
ment offers on every hand bounties to merit. If, like Clay, 
orphanage, obscurity, poverty, shall oppress him ; yet if, like 
Clay, he feels the Promethean spark within, let him remem- 
ber that this country, like a generous mother, extends her arms 
to welcome and to cherish every one of her children whose 
genius and worth may promote her prosperity or increase her 
renown. 

Mr. Speaker, the signs of woe around us, and the general 
voice, announce that another great man has fallen. Our conso- 
lation is that he was not taken in the vigor of his manhood, but 
sank into the grave at the close of a long and illustrious career. 
The great statesmen who have filled the largest space in the 
public eye, one by one are passing away. Of the three great 



370 EULOGY OF MR. BRECKINRIDGE, 

leaders of the Senate, one alone remains, and he must follow 
soon. We shall witness no more their intellectual struggles in 
the American Forum; but the monuments of their genius will 
be cherished as the common property of the people, and their 
names will continue to confer dignity and renown upon their 
country. 

Not less illustrious than the greatest of these will be the 
name of Clay — a name pronounced with pride by Americans 
in every quarter of the globe ; a name to be remembered while 
history shall record the struggles of modern Greece for free- 
dom, or the spirit of liberty burn in the South American 
bosom ; a living and immortal name — a name that would de- 
scend to posterity without the aid of letters, borne by tradition 
from generation to generation. Every memorial of such a man 
will possess a meaning and a value to his countrymen. His 
tomb will be a hallowed spot. Great memories will cluster 
there, and his countrymen, as they visit it, may well exclaim — 

" Such graves as his are pilgrim shrines, 
Shrines to no creed or code confined; 
The Delphian vales, the Palestines, 
The Meccas of the mind." 

Mr. Speaker, I offer the following resolutions : — 

Resolved, That the House of Representatives of the United States has 
received, with the deepest sensibility, intelligence of the death of Henkt 
Clay. 

Resolved, That the officers and members of the House of Representa- 
tives will wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days, as a testi- 
mony of the profound respect this House entertains for the memory of 
the d.^ceascd. 

Resolved, That the officers and members of the House of Representa- 
tives, in a body, will attend the funeral of Henry Clay, on the day 
appointed for that purpose by the Senate of the United States. 

Resobied, That the proceedings of this House in relation to the death 
of Henry Clay, be communicated to the family of the deceased by the 
Clerk. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect for the memory of the 
deceased, this House do now adjourn. 



EULOGY OF MR. SAVING. 



Me. EWING then addressed the House : — 

A NOBLE heart has ceased to beat for ever. A long life of bril- 
liant and self-devoted public service is finished at last. We now 
stand at its conclusion, looking back through the changeful his- 
tory of that life to its beginning, cotemporaneous with the very 
birth of the Republic, and its varied events mingle, in our 
hearts and our memories, with the triumphs and calamities, the 
weakness and the power, the adversity and the prosperity, of a 
country we love so much. As we contemplate this sad event, 
in this place, the shadows of the past gather over us ; the mem- 
ories of events long gone crowd upon us, and the shades of de- 
parted patriots seem to hover about us, and wait to receive into 
their midst the spirit of one who was worthy to be a co-laborer 
with them in a common cause, and to share in the rewards of 
their virtues. Henceforth he must be to us as one of them. 

They say he was ambitious. If so, it was a grievous fault, 
and grievously has he answered it. He has found in it naught 
but disappointment. It has but served to aggravate the mortifi- 
cation of his defeats, and furnish an additional luster to the tri- 
umph of his foes. Those who come after us may, aye, they 
will, inquire why his statue stands not among the statues of 
those whom men thought ablest and worthiest to govern. 

But his ambition was a high and holy feeling, unselfish, mag- 
nanimous. Its aspiialions were for his country's good, and its 
triumph was his country's prosperity. Whether in honor or re- 
proach, in triumph or defeat, tl;at heail of his never throbbed 



372 EULOGY OF MR. EWING. 

with one pulsation, save for her honor and her welfare. Turn to 
him in that last best deed, and crowning glory of a life so full 
of public service and of honor, when his career of personal am- 
bition was finished forever. Rejected again and again by his 
countrymen ; just abandoned by a party which would scarce 
have had an existence without his genius, his courage, and his 
labors, that great heart, ever firm and defiant to the assaults of 
his enemies, but defenseless against the ingratitude of friends, 
doubtless wrung with the bitterest mortification of his life — then it 
was, and under such circumstances as these, the gathering storm 
rose upon his country. All eyes turned to him ; all voices called 
for those services which in the hour of prosperity and security, 
they had so carelessly rejected. With no misanthropic chagrin ; 
with no morose, selfish resentment, he forgot all but his country, 
and that country endangered. He returns to the scene of his 
labors and his fame which he had thought to have left forever ; 
a scene — that American Senate Chamber — clothed in no gor- 
geous drapery, shrouded in no superstitious awe or ancient rev- 
erence for hereditary power, but to a reflecting American mind 
more full of interest, or dignity, and of grandeur than any spot 
on this broad earth, not made holy by religion's consecrating 
seal. See him as he enters there, tremblingly, but hopefully, 
upon tiie last, most momentous, perhaps most doubtful conflict 
of his life. Sir, many a gay tournament has been more dazzling 
to the eye of fancy, more gorgeous and imposing in the display 
of jewelry and cloth of gold, in the sound of heralds' trumpets, 
in the grand array of princely beauty and of royal pride. Many 
a battle-field has trembled beneath a more ostentatious parade of 
human power, and its conquerors have been crowned with lau- 
rels, honored with triumphs, and apotheosized amid the demi- 
gods of history ; but to the thoughtful, hopeful, philanthropic 
student of the annals of his race, never was there a conflict in 
which such dangers were threatened, such hopes imperiled, or 
the hero of which deserved a warmer gratitude, a nobler tri- 
umph, or a prouder monument. 

Sir, from that long, anxious, and exhausting conflict, he never 
rose again. In that last battle for his country's honor and his 



EULOGY OF MK. EWING. 373 

country's safety, he received the mortal wound which laid him 
low, and we now mourn the death of a martyred patriot. 

But never, in all the grand drama which the story of his 
life arrays, never has he presented a sublimer or a more touch- 
ing spectacle than in those last days of his decline and death. 
Broken with the storms of State, wounded and scathed in many 
a fiery conflict, that aged, worn, and decayed body, in such 
mournful contrast with the never-dying strength of his giant 
spirit, he seemed a proud and sacred, though a crumblino- mon- 
ument of past glory. Standing among us like some ancient co- 
lossal ruin amid the degenerate and more diminutive structures of 
modern times, its vast proportions magnified by the contrast, he 
reminded us of those days when there were giants in the land, 
and we remembered that even then there was none whose 
prowess could withstand his arm. To watch him in that slow 
decline, yielding with dignity, and, as it were, inch by inch, to 
that last enemy, as a hero yields to a conquering foe, the glo- 
rious light of his intellect blazing still in all its wonted brilliancy, 
and setting at defiance the clouds that vainly attempted to ob- 
scure it, he was more full of interest than in the day of his 
glory and his power. There are some men whose brightest 
intellectual emanations rise so little superior to the instincts of 
the animal, that we are led fearfully to doubt that cherished 
truth of the soul's immortality, which, even in despair, men 
press to their doubting hearts. But it is in the death of such 
a man as he, that we are reassured by the contemplation of a 
kindred, though superior, spirit, of a soul, which, immortal, like 
his fame, knows no old age, no decay, no death. 

The wondrous light of his unmatched intellect may have daz- 
zled a world ; the eloquence of that inspired tongue may have 
enchanted millions, but there are few who have sounded the 
depths of that noble heart. To see him in sickness and in 
health, in joy and in sadness, in the silent watches of the night 
and in the busy daytime— this it was to know and love him. 
To see the impetuous torrent of that resistless will ; the hurri- 
cane of those passions hushed in peace, breathe calm and gently 
as a summer zephyr ; to feel the gentle pressure of that hand in 



374 EULOGY OF MR. EWING. 

the grasp of friendship, which in the rage of fiery conflict, 
would hurl scorn and defiance at his foe ; to see that eagle eye, 
which oft would burn with patriotic ardor, or flash with the 
lightning of his anger, beam with the kindliest expressions of 
tenderness and affection — then it was, and then alone, we could 
learn to know and feel that that heart was warmed by the same 
sacred fire from above which enkindled the light of his re- 
splendent intellect. In the death of such a man even patriotism 
itself might pause, and for a moment stand aloof, while friend- 
ship shed a tear of sorrow upon his bier. 

" His life was gentle ; and the elements 
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, This was a man." 

But who can estimate his country's loss ? What tongue por- 
tray the desolation which in this hour throughout this broad 
land hangs like a gloomy pall over his grief-stricken country- 
men ? How poorly can words like mine translate the eloquence 
of a whole people's grief for a patriot's death. For a nation's 
loss let a nation mourn. For that stupendous calamity to our 
country and mankind, be the heavens hung with black ; let the 
wailinor elements chant his dirg-e, and the universal heart of man 
throb with one common pang of grief and anguish. 



EULOGY OF MR. CASKIE. 



Mb. CASKIE then addressed the House :— 

Mr. Speaker — Unwell as I am, I must try to lay a single 
laurel leaf in that open coffin which is already garlanded by the 
eloquent tributes to the illustrious departed, which have been 
heard in this now solemn Hall ; for I come, sir, fi-om the dis- 
trict of his birth. I represent on this floor that old Hanover so 
proud of her Henrys — her Patrick Henry and her Henry Clay. 
I speak for a people among whom he has always had as earnest 
and devoted friends as were ever the grace and glory of a 
patriot and a statesman. 

I shall attempt no sketch of his life. That you have had 
from other and abler hands than mine. Till yesterday that life 
was, of his own free gift, the property of his country ; to-day it 
belongs to her history. It is known to all, and will not be for- 
gotten. Constant, stern opponent of his political school, as has 
been my State, I say for her, that no where in this broad land 
were his great qualities more admired, or is his death more 
mourned, than in Virginia. Well may this be so ; for she is his 
mother, and he was her son. 

Mr. Speaker, when I remember the party strifes in which he 
was so much mingled, and through which we all more or less 
have passed, and then survey this scene, and think how far, as 
the lightning has borne the news that he is gone, half-masted 
flags are drooping, and church bells are tolling, and hearts are 
sorrowinof, I can but feel that it is gfood for man to die. For 
when Death enters, ! how the unkindnesses, and jealousies, 
and rivalries of life do vanish, and how, like incense from an 



376 EULOGY OF MR. CASKIE. 

altar, do peace, and friendship, and all the sweet charities of our 
nature, rise around the corpse which was once a man ! And of 
a truth, Mr. Speaker, never was more of veritable noble man- 
hood cased in mortal mold than was found in him to whoso 
memory this brief and humble, yet true and heartfelt, tribute ia 
paid. But his eloquent voice is hushed, his high heart is stilled, 
"Like a shock of corn fully ripe, he has been gathered to hia 
fathers." With more than three score years and ten upon him, 
and honors clustered thick about him, in the full possession of 
unclouded intellect, and all the consolations of Christianity, he 
has met the fate which is evilable by none. Lamented by all his 
countrymen, his name is bright on Fame's immortal roll. He 
has finished his course, and he has his crown. What more 
fruit can life bear ? What can it give that Henry Clat has not 
gained ? 

Then, Mr. Speaker, around his tomb should be heard, not 
only the dirge that wails his loss, but the jubilant anthem which 
sounds that on the world's battle-field another victory has been 
won — another incontestable greatness achieved. 







CLAY MONUMENT, POTTSVILLF., PA. 



EULOGY OF M.CHANDLEE. 



Mr. chandler then addressed the House : — 

Mr. Speaker — It would seem as if the solemn invocation of 
the honorable gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Ewing) was re- 
ceiving an early answer, and that the heavens are hung in black, 
and the wailino- elements are sing-ino- the funeral diroe of Henry 
Clay. Amid this elemental gloom, and the distress which per- 
vades the nation at the death of Henry Clay, private grief 
should not obtrude itself upon notice, nor personal anguish seek 
for utterance. Silence is the best exponent of individual sorrow, 
and the heart that knoweth its own bitterness shrinks from an 
exposition of its affliction. 

Could I have consulted my own feelings on the event which 
occupies the attention of the House at the present moment, I 
should even have forborne attendance here, and in the solitude 
and silence of my chamber, have mused upon the terrible lesson 
which has been administered to the people and the nation. But 
I represent a constituency Avho justly pride themselves upon the 
unwavering attachment they have ever felt and manifested to 
Henry Clay — a constant, pervading, hereditary love. The son 
has taken up the father's affection, and amid all the professions 
of political attachments to others, whom the accidents of party 
have made prominent, and the success of party has made power- 
ful, true to his own instincts, and true to the sanctified legacy of 
his fatlier, he has placed the name of Henry Clay forward and 
pre-eminent, as the exponent of what is greatest in statesman- 
ship and purest in patriotism. And even, sir, when party 
32 ^^) 



378 EULOGY OF MR. CHANDLER. 

fealty caused other attachments to be avowed for party uses, the 
preference was limited to the occupancy of office, and superiority 
admitted for Clay in all that is reckoned above party estimation. 

Nor ought I forbear to add that, as the senior member of the 
delegation which represents my Commonwealth, I am requested 
to utter the sentiments of the people of Pennsylvania at large, 
who yield to no portion of this great Union in their appreciation 
of the talents, their reverence for the lofty patriotism, their admi- 
ration of the statesmanship, and hereafter their love of the mem- 
ory of Henry Clay. 

I can not, therefore, be silent on this occasion without injustice 
to the affections of my constituency, even though I painfully feel 
how inadequate to the reverence and love my people have toward 
that great statesman must be all that I have to utter on this 
mournful occasion. 

I know not, Mr. Chairman, where now the nation is to find 
the men she needs in peril ; either other calls than those of 
politics are holding in abeyance the talents Avhich the nation may 
need, or else a generation is to pass undistinguished by the 
greatness of our statesmen. Of the noble minds that have 
swayed the Senate one yet survives in the maturity of powerful 
intellect, carefully disciplined, and nobly exercised. May He 
who has thus far blessed our nation, spare to her and the world 
that of which the world must always envy our country the pos- 
session ! But my business is with the dead. 

The biography of Henry Clay, from his childhood upward, 
is too familiar to every American for me to trespass on the time 
of this House, by a reference directly thereto ; and the honor- 
able gentlemen who have preceded me have, with affectionate 
hand and appropriate delicacy, swept away the dust which 
nearly fourscore years have scattered over a part of the record, 
and have made our pride greater in his life, and our grief more 
poignant at his death, by showing some of those passages which 
attract respect to our republican institutions, of which Mr. 
Clay's whole life was the able support, and the most successful 
illustration. 



EULOGY OF MK. CHAKDLER. g-^Q 

It would, then, be a work of supererogation for me to renew 
that effort, though inquiry into the life and conduct of Henry 
Clay would present new themes for private eulogy, new grounds 
for public gratitude. 

How rare is it, Mr. Speaker, that the great man, living, cai.. 
with confidence rely on extensive personal friendship, or dyin<^, 
think to awaken a sentiment of regret beyond that which in- 
cludes the public loss or the disappointment of individual hopes. 
Yet, sir, the message which yesterday went forth from this city 
that Henry Clay was dead, brought sorrow, personal, private, 
special sorrow, to the hearts of thousands ; each of whom felt 
that from his own love for, his long attachment to, his disinter- 
ested hopes in, Henry Clay, he had a particular sorrow to 
cherish and expiess, which weighed upon his heart separate 
from the sense of national loss. 

No man, Mr. Speaker, in our nation had the art so to identify 
himself with public measures of the most momentous character, 
and to maintain at the same time almost universal affection, like 
that great statesman. His business, from his boyhood, was with 
national concerns, and he dealt with them as with familiar 
things. And yet his sympathies were with individual interests, 
enterprises, affections, joys, and sorrows ; and while every pa- 
triot bowed in humble deference to his lofty attainments and 
heartfelt gratitude for his national services, almost every man in 
this vast Republic knew that the great statesman was, in feeling 
and experience, identified with his own position. Hence, the 
universal love of the people; hence, their enthusiasm in all 
tmies for his fame. Hence, sir, their present grief. 

Many other public men of our country have distinguished 
themselves and brought honor to the nation by superiority in 
some peculiar branch of public service, but it seems to have 
been the gift of Mr. Clay to have acquired peculiar eminence in 
every path of duty he was called to tread. In the earnestness 
of debate, which great public interests and distinguished op- 
posing talents excited in this House, he had no superior in 
energy, force, or effect. Yet, as the presiding officer, by bland- 



380 EULOGY OF MR. CHANDLER. 

ness of language and firmness of purpose, he soothed and made 
orderly; and thus, by official dignity, he commanded the re- 
spect which energy had secured to him on the floor. 

Wherever official or social duties demanded an exercise of his 
power, there was a pre-eminence which seemed prescriptively his 
own. In the lofty debate of the Senate, and the stirring har- 
angues to popular assemblages, he was the orator of the nation 
and of the people ; and the sincerity of purpose and the unity 
of design evinced in all he said or did, fixed in the public mind 
a confidence strong and expansive as the aff"ections he had won. 

Year after year, sir, has Henry Clay been achieving the 
work of the mission with which he was intrusted ; and it was 
only when the warmest wishes of his warmest friends were dis- 
appointed, that he entered on the fruition of a patriot's highest 
hopes, and stood in the full enjoyment of that admiration and 
confidence which nothing but the antagonism of party relations 
could have divided. 

How rich that enjoyment must have been it is only for us to 
imagine ; — how eminently deserved it was we and the world can 
attest. 

The love and the devotion of his political friends were cheer- 
ing and grateful to his heart, and were acknowledged in all his 
life — were recoonized even to his death. 

The contests in the Senate Chamber or the forum were re- 
warded with success achieved, and the great victor could enjoy 
the ovation with partial friendship or the gratitude of the benefit 
prepared. But the triumph of his life was no party achieve- 
ment. It was not in the applause which admiring friends and 
defeated antagonists offered to his measureless success, that he 
found the reward of his labors, and comprehended the extent of 
his mission. 

It was only when friends and antagonists paused in their con- 
tests, appalled at the public difficulties and national dangers 
which had been accumulating, unseen and unregarded ; it was 
only when the nation itself felt the danger, and acknowledged 
the inefficacy of party action as a remedy, that Henry Clay 
calculated the full extent of his powers, and enjoyed the reward 



EULOGY OF MK. CHANDLER. 381 

of their saving exercise. Then, sir, you saw, and I saw, party- 
designations dropped, and party allegiance disavowed, and 
anxious patriots, of all localities and name, turn toward the 
country's benefactor as the man for the terrible exigencies of the 
hour ; and the sick chamber of Henry Clay became the Del- 
phos whence were given out the oracles that presented the means 
and the measures of our Union's safety. There, sir, and not in 
the high places of the country, were the labors and sacrifices of 
half a century to be rewarded and closed. With his right yet 
in that Senate which he entered the youngest, and lingered still 
the eldest member, he felt that his work was done, and the ob- 
ject of his life accomplished. Every cloud that had dimmed 
the noonday luster had been dissipated ; and the retiring orb, 
which sank from the sight of the nation in fullness and in 
beauty, will yet pour up the horizon a posthumous glory that 
shall tell of the splendor and greatness of the luminary that has 
passed away. 



EULOGY OF MR. BAYLY. 



Ma. BAYLY then addressed the House : — 

Mr. Speaker — Although I have been all my life a political 
opponent of Mr. Clay, yet from my boyhood I have been upon 
terms of personal friendship with him. More than twenty years 
ago, I was introduced to him by my father, who was his per- 
sonal friend. From that time to this, there has existed be- 
tween us as great personal intimacy as the disparity in our 
years and our political difference would justify. After I be- 
came a member of this House, and upon his return to the 
Senate, subsequent to his resignation in 1842, the warm regard 
upon his part for the daughter of a devoted friend of forty 
years' standing, made him a constant visitor at my house, and 
frequently a guest at my table. These circumstances make it 
proper, that upon this occasion, I should pay this last tribute to 
his memory. I not only knew him well as a statesman, but I 
knew him better in most unreserved social intercourse. The 
most happy circumstance, as I esteem it, of my political life has 
been, that I have thus known each of our great Congressional 
triumvirate. 

I, sir, never knew a man of higher qualities than Mr. Clay. 
His very faults originated in high qualities. With as great 
self-possession, with greater self-reliance than any man I ever 
knew, he possessed moral and physical courage to as high a 
degree as any man who ever lived. Confident in his own judg- 

(382) 



EULOGY OF MR. BAYLY. JiSS 

ment, never doubting as to his own course, fearing no obstacle 
that might lie in his way, it was almost impossible that he 
should not have been imperious in his character. Never doubt- 
ing himself as to what, in his opinion, duty and patriotism 
required at his hands, it was natural that he should sometimes 
have been impatient with those more doubting and timid than 
himself. His were qualities to have made a great general, as 
they were qualities that did make him a great statesman, and 
these qualities were so obvious that during the darkest period 
of our late war with Great Britain, Mr. Madison had deter- 
mined, at one time, to make him General-in-Chief of the Amer- 
ican army. 

Sir, it is but a short time since the American Congress 
buried the first one that went to the grave of that great trium- 
virate. We are now called upon to bury another. The third, 
thank God ! still lives, and long may he live to enlighten his 
countrymen by his wisdom, and set them the example of exalted 
patriotism. Sir, in the lives and characters of these great men, 
there is much resembling those of the great triumvirate of the 
British Parliament. It differs principally in this : Burke pre- 
ceded Fox and Pitt to the tomb. Webster survives Clay and 
Calhoun. When Fox and Pitt died, they left no peer behind 
them. Webster still lives, now that Calhoun and Clay are dead, 
the unrivaled statesman of his country. Like Fox and Pitt, 
Clay and Calhoun lived in troubled times. Like Fox and Pitt, 
they were each of them the leader of rival parties. Like Fox 
and Pitt, they were idolized by their respective friends. Like 
Fox and Pitt, they died about the same time, and in the public 
service ; and as has been said of Fox and Pitt, Clay and Cal- 
houn died with "their harness upon them." Like Fox and 
Pitt— 

"With more than mortal powers endow'd, 
How high they soar above the crowd ; 
Theirs was no common party race. 
Jostling by dark intrigue for place — 
Like fabled gods their mighty war 
Shook realms and nations in its jar. 



i 



gS4 EULOGY OF MR. BAYLY. 

Beneath each banner proud to stand, 
Look'd up the noblest of the land. 

« « » » 

Here let their discord with them die. 
Speak not for those a separate doom. 
Whom fate made brothers in the tomb, 
But search the land of living men. 
Where wilt thou find their like again T" 



' 



&• 



EULOGY OF MR. YENABLE. 



Mk. VENABLE then addressed the House : — 

Mr. Speaker — I trust that I shall be pardoned for adding a 
few words upon this sad occasion. The life of the illustrious 
statesman which has just terminated is so interwoven with our 
history, and the luster of his great name so profusely shed over 
its pages, that simple admiration of his high qualities might well 
be my excuse. But it is a sacred privilege to draw near ; to 
contemplate the end of the great and good. It is profitable, as 
well as purifying, to look upon and realize the office of death in 
removing all that can excite jealousy or produce distrust, and to 
gaze upon the virtues which, like jewels, have survived his 
powers of destruction. The light which radiates from the life 
of a great and patriotic statesman is often dimmed by the mists 
which party conflicts throw around it. But the blast which 
strikes him down purifies the atmosphere which surrounded him 
in life, and it shines forth in bright examples and well-earned 
renown. It is then that we witness the sincere acknowledgment 
of gratitude by a people who, having enjoyed the benefits arising 
from (he services of an eminent statesman, embalm his name in 
their memory and hearts. We should cherish such recollections 
as well from patriotism as self-respect. Ours, sir, is now the 
duty, in the midst of sadness, in this high place, in the face of 
our Republic, and before the Avorld, to pay this tribute, by ac- 
knowledging the merits of our colleague, whose name has orna- 
mented the Journals of Congress for near half a century. Few, 



386 EULOGY OF MR. VENABLE. 

very few, have ever combined the high intellectual powers and 
distinguished gifts of this illustrious Senator. Cast in the 
finest mold by nature, he more than fullilled the anticipations 
which were indulged by those who looked to a distinguished 
career as the certain result of that zealous pursuit of fame and 
usefulness upon which he entered in early life. Of the inci- 
dents of that life it is unnecessary for me to speak — they are as 
familiar as household words, and must be equally familiar to 
those who come after us. But it is useful to refresh memory, 
by recurrence to some of the events which marked his career. 
We know, sir, that there is much that is in common in the his- 
tories of distinguished men. The elements which constitute 
greatness are the same in all times ; hence, those who have been 
the admiration of their generations present in their lives much 
which, althoiigh really great, ceases to be remarkable, because 
illustrated by such numerous examples — 

" But there are deeds which should not pass away 
And names that must not wither." 

Of such deeds the life of Henry Clay affords many and bright 
examples. His own name, and those with whom he associated, 
shall live with a freshness which time can not impair, and shine 
with a brightness which passing years can not dim. His ad- 
vent into public life was as remarkable for the circumstances as 
it was brilliant in its effect. It was at a time in which genius 
and learning, statesmanship and eloquence, made the American 
Congress the most august body in the world. He was the co- ^ 

temporary of a race of statesmen, some of whom — then admin- ;.i|| 

isterinff the Government, and others retirinaf and retired from 
office — presented an array of ability unsurpassed in our history. 
The elder Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Gallatin, Clinton, and 
Monroe, stood before the Republic in the maturity of their fame ; 
while Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, Lowndes, Randolph, 
Crawford, Gaston, and Cheves, with a host of others, rose a 
bright galaxy upon our horizon. He who won his spurs in such 
a field earned his knighthood. Distinction amid such com- 
petition was tnio renown — 



EULOGY OF MR. VENABLE. 387 

" The fame which a man wins for himself is best 
That he may call his own." 

It was such a fame that he made for himself in that most 
eventful era in our history. To me, sir, the recollections of that 
day, and the events which distinguish it, are filled with an over- 
powering interest. I never can forget my enthusiastic admira- 
tion of the boldness, the eloquence, and the patriotism of Henrt 
Clay during the war of 1812. In the bright array of talent 
which adorned the Congress of the United States ; in the con- 
flict growing out of the political events of that time ; in the 
struggles of party, and amid the gloom and disasters which 
depressed the spirits of most men, and well nigh paralyzed the 
energies of the Administration, his cheerful face, high bearing, 
commanding eloquence, and iron will, gave strength and con- 
sistency to those elements which finally gave not only success 
but glory to the country. When dark clouds hovered over us, 
and there was little to save from despair, the country looked 
with hope to Clay and Calhoun, to Lowndes and Crawford, and 
Cheves, and looked not in vain. The unbending will, the un- 
shaken nerve, and the burning eloquence of Henry Clay did 
as much to command confidence and sustain hope as even the 
news of our first victory after a succession of defeats. Those 
great names are now canonized in history ; he, too, has passed 
to join them on its pages. Associated in his long political life 
with the illustrious Calhoun, he survived him but two years. 
Many of us heard his eloquent tribute to his memory in the 
Senate Chamber, on the annunciation of his death. And we 
this day unite in a similar manifestation of reverential regard to 
him, whose voice shall never more charm the ear, whose burning 
thoughts, borne on that medium, shall no more move the hearts 
of listening assemblies. 

In the midst of the highest specimens of our race, he was 
always an equal ; he was a man among men. Bold, skillful, and 
determined, he gave character to the party which acknowledged 
him as a leader ; mipressed his opinions upon their minds, and 
an attachmeiit to himself upon their hearts. No man, sir, can 
do this without beintc eminentlv grreat. Whoever attains this 



3S8 EULOGY OF MR. VENABLE. 

position must first overcome the aspirations of antagonist am- 
bition, quiet the clamors of rivahy, hold in check the murmurs 
of jealousy, and overcome the instincts of vanity and self-love 
in the masses thus subdued to his control. But few men ever 
attain it. Very rare are the examples of those whose plastic 
touch forms the minds and directs the purposes of a great polit- 
ical party. This infallible indication of superiority belonged to 
Mr. Clay. He has exercised that control during a long life ; 
and now through our broad land the tidings of his death, borne 
with electric speed, have opened the fountains of sorrow. Every 
city, town, village, and hamlet, will be clothed with mourning, 
along our extended coast, the commercial and militaiy marine, 
with flags drooping at half-mast, own the bereavement; State- 
houses draped in black proclaim the extinguishment of one of 
the great lights of Senates ; and minute-guns sound his requiem ! 
Sir, during the last five years I have seen the venerable John 
Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay, pass from 
among us, the legislators of our country. The race of giants 
who "were on the earth in those days" is well-nigh gone. 
Despite their skill, their genius, their might, they have sunk 
under the stroke of time. They Avere our admiration and our 
glory ; a few linger with us, the monuments of former greatness ; 
the beacon-lights of a past age. The death of Henry Clay can 
not fail to suggest melancholy associations to each member of 
this House. These walls have re-echoed the silvery tones of his 
beAvitching voice ; listening assemblies have hung upon his lips. 
The chair which you fill has been graced by his presence, while 
his commanding person and unequaled parliamentary attain- 
ments inspired all Avith deference and respect. Chosen by ac- 
clamation, because of his high qualifications, he sustained liim- 
self before the House and the country. In his supremacy Avith 
his party, and the uninlerrupled confidence Avhicli he enjoyed to 
the day of his death, he seems to have almost discredited the 
truth of those lines of tlie poet Laberius — 

"Noti possiint piimi esse oinnes onini in tempore, 
Sunmnuii ad grachim cum claritotis veneris, 
Consistes segre. et citius, qnam ascendas, cades. 



EULOGY Oi" MK. VENABLS. 389 

If not at all times first he stood equal with the foremost, and 
a brilliant rapid rise knew no decline in the confidence of those 
"whose just appreciation of his merits had confirmed his title to 
renown. 

Tlie citizens of other countries will deplore his death ; the 
struggling patriots who, on our own continent, were cheered by 
his sympathies, and who must have perceived his influence in 
the recognition of their independence by this Government, have 
lauQ-ht their children to venerate his name. He won the civic 
crown, and the demonstrations of this hour own the worth of 
civil services. 

It was with great satisfaction that I heard my friend from 
Kentucky [Mr. Breckinridgk], the immediate representative of 
Mr. Clay, detail a conversation, which disclosed the feelings of 
that eminent man in relation to his Chrislian hope. These, 
Mr. Speaker, are rich memorials, precious reminiscences. A 
Christian statesman is the glory of his age, and his memory will 
be glorious in after times ; it reflects a light coming from a 
source which clouds can not dim nor shadows obscure. It was 
my privilege, also, a short time since, to converse with this dis- 
tinguished statesman on the subject of his hopes in a future 
state. Feeling a deep interest, I asked him frankly what were 
his hopes in the world to which he was evidently hastening. "1 
am pleased," said he, "my friend, that you have introduced the 
subject. Conscious that I must die very soon, I love to medi- 
tate upon tlie most important of all interests. I love to con- 
verse and to hear conversations about them. The vanity of the 
world, and its insufficiency to satisfy the soul of man, has long 
been a settled conviction of my mind. Man's inability to secure 
by his own merits the approbation of God, I feel to be true. I 
trust in the atonement of the Saviour of men, as the ground of 
my acceptance and my hope of salvation. My faith is feeble, 
but I hope in His mercy and trust in His promises." To such 
declarations I listened with the deepest interest, as I did on 
another occasion, when he said : " I am Avilling to abide the will 
of Heaven, and ready to die when that will shall determine it." 

He is gone, sir, professing the humble hope of a Christian. 



390 EULOGY OF MR. YEN ABLE 

That hope, alone, sir, can sustain you or any of us. There is 
one lonely and crushed heart that has bowed before this afflictive 
event. Far away at Ashland, a widowed wife, prevented by 
feeble health from attending his bedside and soothing his painful 
hours, she has thought even the electric speed of the intelligence 
daily transmitted of his condition too slow for her aching, anx- 
ious bosom. She will fir ' consolation in his Christian submis- 
sion, and will draw al' . comfort that such a case admits, from 
the assurance that nothing was neglected by the kindness of 
friends which could supply her place. May the guardianship 
of the widow's God be her protection, and His consolations her 

support ! 

"All can not be at times first, 
To reach the topmost step of gloiy ; to stand there 
More hard. Even swifter than we mount, we fall." 



EULOGY OF MR. HAVEN. 



Mr. UAVEN tlien addressed the House : — 

Mr. Speaker — Representing a constituency distinguished for 
the constancy of its devotion to the political principles of Mr. 
Clay, and for its unwavering attachment to his fortunes and 
his person — sympathizing deeply with those whose more inti- 
mate personal relations with him have made them feel most 
profoundly this general bereavement — I desire to say a few 
words of him, since he has fallen among us, and been taken 
to his rest. 

After the finished eulogies which have been so eloquently 
pronounced by the honorable gentlemen who have preceded 
me, I will avoid a course of remark which might otherwise be 
deemed a repetition, and refer to the bearing of some of the 
acts of the deceased upon the interests and destinies of my 
own State. The influence of his public life, and of his purely 
American character, the benefits of his wise forecast, and the 
results of his eflforts for wholesome and rational progress, are 
nowhere more strongly exhibited than in the State of New 
York. 

Our appreciation of his anxiety for the general diffusion of 
knowledge and education, is manifested in our twelve thousand 
public libraries, our equal number of common schools, and a 
large number of higher institutions of learning, all of which 
dmw portions of their support from the share of the proceeds 
of the public lands, Avhich his wise policy gave to our State. 

(391) 



3^3 EDLOGY OP MR. HAVEN. 

Our whole people are thus constantly reminded of their great 
obligations to the statesman whose death now afflicts the nation 
with sorrow. Our extensive public works attest our conviction 
of the utility and importance of the system of internal improve- 
ments he so ably advocated; and their value and productive- 
ness afford a most striking evidence of the soundness and 
wisdom of his policy. Nor has his influence been less sensibly 
felt in our agriculture, commerce, and manufactures. Every 
department of human industry acknowledges his fostering care ; 
and the people of New York are, in no small measure, indebted 
to his statesmanship for the wealth, comfort, contentment, and 
happiness so widely and so generally diffused throughout the 
State. 

Well may New York cherish his memory and acknowledge 
with gratitude the benefits that his life has conferred. That 
memory will be cherished throughout the Republic. 

When internal discord and sectional sti-ife have threatened 
the integrity of the Union, his just weight of character, his 
large experience, his powers of conciliation and acknowledged 
patriotism, have enabled him to pacify the angry passions of his 
countrymen, and to raise the bow of promise and of hope upon 
the clouds which have darkened the political horizon. 

He has passed from among us, ripe in wisdom and pure in 
character — full of years and full of honors — he has breathed hia 
last amid the blessings of a united and grateful nation. 

He was, in my judgment, particularly fortunate in the time 
of his death. 

He lived to see his country, guided by his wisdom, come 
once again unhurt out of trying sectional difficulties and domes- 
tic strife ; and he has closed his eyes in death upon that coun- 
try, while it is in the enjoyment of profound peace, busy with 
industry, and blessed with unequaled prosperity. 

It can fall to the lot of but few to die amid so warm 
a gratitude, flowing from the hearts of their countrymen ; 
and none can leave a brighter example, or a more enduring 
fame. 



EULOGY OF MR. BPlOOKS. 



Me. brooks then addressed the House :— 

Mr. Speaker — I rise to add my humble tribute to the mem- 
ory of a great and good man now to be gathered to his fathers. 
I speak for, and from, a community in whose heart is enshrined 
the name of him whom we mourn ; wlio, however much Vir- 
ginia, the land of his birth, or Kentucky, the land of his adop- 
tion, may love him, is, if possible, loved where I live yet more. 
If idolatry had been Christian, or allowable even, he would have 
been our idol. But as it is, for a quarter of a century now, his 
bust, his portrait, or some medal, has been one of our house- 
hold gods, gracing not alone the saloons and the halls of wealth, 
but the humblest room or workshop of almost every mechanic 
or laborer. Proud monuments of his policy as a statesman, as 
my colleague has justly said, are all about us ; and we owe to 
him, in a good degree, our growth, our greatness, our pros- 
perity and happiness as a people. 

The great field of Henry Clay, Mr. Speaker, has been here, 
on the floor of this House, and in the other wing of the Capitol, 
He has held other posts of higher nominal distinction, but they 
are all eclipsed by the brilliancy of his career as a Congressman. 
What of glory he has acquired, or what most endears him to his 
countrymen, has been won, here, amid these pillars, under these 
domes of the Capitol. 

" Si quaeris monuraentum, circumspice." 
The mind of Mr. Clay has been the governing mind of the 

C 393) 



394 EULOGY OF MK. BUOOK8. 

country, more or less, ever since he has been on the stage of 
public action. In a minority or majority — more, perhaps, even 
in a minority than in a majority — he seems to have had some 
commission, divine as it were, to persuade, to convince, to 
govern other men. His patriotism, his grand conceptions, have 
created measures which the secret fascination of his manners, 
in-doors, or his irresistible eloquence without, have enabled him 
almost always to frame into laws. Adverse administrations have 
yielded to him, or been borne down by him, or he has taken 
them captive as a leader, and carried the country and Con- 
gress with him. This power he has wielded now for nearly 
half a century, with nothing but Reason and Eloquence to back 
him. And yet, when he came here, years ago, he came from a 
then frontier State of this Union, heralded by no loud trumpet 
of fame, nay, quite unknown ! unfortitied even by any position, 
social or pecuniary — to quote his own words, " My only heritage 
has been infancy, indigence, and ignorance." 

In these days, Mr. Speaker, when mere civil qtialifications for 
high public places — when long civil training and practical states- 
manship are held subordinate — a most discouraging prospect 
would be rising up before our young men, were it not for some 
such names as Lowndes, Crawford, Clinton, Gaston, Calhoun, 
Clay, and the like, scattered along the pages of our history, as 
stars or constellations along a cloudless sky. They shine forth 
and show us, that if the Chief Magistracy can not be won by 
such qualifications, a memory among men can be — a hold upon 
posterity, as firm, as lustrous — nay, more imperishable. In the 
Capitolium of Rome there are long rows of marble slabs, on 
which are recorded the names of the Roman consuls ; but the 
eye wanders over this wilderness of letters but to light up and 
kindle upon some Cato or Cicero. To win such fame, thus un 
sullied, as Mr, Clay has won, is worth any man's ambition. 
And how was it won ? By courting the shifting gales of popu- 
larity ? No, never ! By truckling to the schemes, the arts, 
and seductions of the demao-oajue ? Never, never ! His hardest 
battles as a public man — his greatest, most illustrious achieve- 
ments — have been against, at first, an adverse public opinion. 



EDLOGY OF MK. BE00K8. 395 

To gain an imperishable name, he has often braved the perish- 
able popularity of the moment. That sort of courage which, in 
a public man, I deem the highest of all courage, that sort of 
courage most necessary under our form of government to guide 
as well as to save a State, Mr. Clay was possessed of more than 
any public man I ever knew. Physical courage, valuable, in- 
dispensable though it be, we share but with the brute ; but 
moral courage, to dare to do right amid all temptations to do 
wrong, is, as it seems to me, the very highest species, the no- 
blest heroism under institutions like ours. " I had rather be 
right than be President," was Mr. Clay's sublime reply when 
pressed to refrain from some measure that would mar his popu- 
larity. These lofty words were the clue of his whole charac- 
ter — ihe secret of his hold upon the heads as well as hearts of 
the American people ; nay, the key of his immortality. 

Another of the keys, Mr. Speaker, of his universal reputation 
was his intense nationality. When taunted but recently, almost 
within our hearing, as it were, on the floor of the Senate, by a 
Southern Senator, as being a Southern man unfaithful to the 
South — his indignant but patriotic exclamation was, "I know no 
South, no North, no East, no West." The country, the whole 
country, loved, reverenced, adored such a man. The soil of 
Virginia may be his birthplace, the sod of Kentucky will cover 
his grave — what was mortal they claim — but the spirit, the soul, 
the genius of the mighty man, the immortal part, these belong 
to his country and to his God. 



EULOGY OF ME. FAULKNER. 



Mr. FAULKNER then addressed the House :- 

Mr. Speaker — Representing-, in part, the State which gave 
birth to that distinguished man whose death has just been an- 
nounced upon this floor, and having for many years held toward 
him the most cordial relations of friendship, personal and politi- 
cal, I feel that I should fail to discharge an appropriate duty, if 
I permitted this occasion to pass by without some expression of 
the feeling which such an event is so well calculated to elicit. 
Sir, this intelligence does not fall upon our ears unexpectedly. 
For months the public mind has been prepared for the great 
national loss which we now deplore ; and yet, as familiar as the 
daily and hourly reports have made us with his hopeless condi- 
tion and gradual decline, and although, 

" Like a shadow thrown 
Softly and sweetly from a passing cloud. 
Death fell upon him," 

It is impossible that a light of such surpassing splendor should 
be, as it is now, for ever extinguished from our view, without 
producing a shock, deeply and painfully felt to the utmost limits 
of this great Republic. Sir, we all feel that a mighty intellect 
has passed from among us ; but, happily for this country, hap- 
pily for mankind, not until it had accomplished to some extent 
the exalted mission for which it had been sent upon this earth; 
not until it had reached the full maturity of its usefulness and 
power; not until it had shed a bright and radiant luster over 

(3SC) 



EULOGY OF MR. FAULKNER. 397 

our national renown ; not until time had enabled it to bequeath 
the rich treasures of its thought and experience for the guidance 
and instruction of the present and of succeeding generations. 

Sir, it is difficult — it is impossible — within the limit allowed 
for remarks upon occasions of this kind, to do justice to a great 
historical character like Henry Clay. He was one of that class 
of men whom Scaligfer desio-nates as homines centenarii — men 
that appear upon the earth but once in a century. His fame is 
the growth of years, and it would require time to unfold the 
elements which have combined to impart to it so much of sta- 
bility and grandeur. Volumes have already been written, and 
volumes will continue to be written, to record those eminent 
and distinguished public services which have placed him in the 
front rank of American statesmen and patriots. The highest 
talent, stimulated by a fervid and patriotic enthusiasm, has 
already and will continue to exhaust its powers to portray those 
striking and generous incidents of his life — those shining and 
captivating qualities of his heart, which have made him one of 
the most beloved, as he was one of the most admired, of men ; 
and yet the subject itself will remain as fresh and exhaustless as 
if hundreds of the best intellects of the land had not quaffed 
the inspiration of their genius from the ever-gushing and over- 
flowing fountains of his fame. It could not be that a reputation 
so grand and colossal as that which attaches to the name of 
Henry Clay could rest for its base upon any single virtue, how- 
ever striking ; nor upon any single act, no matter how marked 
or distinguished. Such a reputation as he has left behind him, 
could only be the result of a long life of illustrious public ser- 
vice. And such in truth it was. For nearly half a century he 
has been a prominent actor in all the stirring and eventful scenes 
of American history, fashioning and molding many of the most 
important measures of public policy by his bold and sagacious 
mind, and arresting others by his unconquerable energy and 
resistless force of eloquence. And, however much the members 
of this body may differ in opinion as to the wisdom of many of 
his views of national domestic policy, there is not one upon this 
floor — no, sir, not one in tliis nation — who will dpny to him 



398 EULOGY OF MK. FAULKNER. 

frankness and directness as a public man ; a genius for states- 
manship of the highest order ; extraordinary capacities for pub- 
lic usefulness, and an ardent and elevated patriotism, without 
stain and without reproach. 

In referring to a career of public service so varied and ex- 
tended as that of Mr. Clay, and to a character so rich in every 
great and manly virtue, it is only possible to glance at a few of 
the most prominent of those points of his personal history, 
which have given to him so distinguished a place in the affec- 
tions of his countrymen. 

In the whole character of Mr. Clay, in all that attached or 
belonged to it, you find nothing that is not essentially American. 
Born in the darkest period of our Revolutionary struggle ; 
reared from infancy to manhood among those great minds which 
gave the first impulse to that mighty movement, he early im- 
bibed, and sedulously cherished, those great principles of civil 
and political liberty, which he so brilliantly illustrated in his 
subsequent life, and which have made his name a watchword of 
hope and consolation to the oppressed of all the earth. In his 
intellectual training he was the pure creation of our own repub- 
lican soil. Few, if any, allusions are to be seen in his speeches 
or writings to ancient or modern literature, or to the thoughts 
and ideas of other men. His country, its institutions, its policy, 
its interests, its destiny, form the exclusive topics of those elo- 
quent harangues which, while they are destitute of the elaborate 
finish have all the ardor and intensity of thought, the eainest- 
ness of purpose, the cogency of reasoning, the vehemence of 
style, and the burning patriotism which mark the productions of 
the great Athenian orator. 

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Mr. Clay, 
as a public man, was his loyalty to truth, and to the honest con- 
victions of his own mind. He deceived no man ; he would not 
permit his own heart to be deceived by any of those seductive 
influences which too often warp the judgment of men in ptiblic 
station. He never paused to consider how far any step which 
he was about to take would lead to his own personal advance- 
ment ; he never calculated what he might lose or what he might 



EULOGY OF MR. FAULKNEK. 399 

gain by his advocacy of, or his opposition to, any particular 
measure. His single inquiry was, Is it right ? Is it in ac- 
cordance with the Constitution of the land ? Will it redound to 
the permanent welfare of the country ? When satisfied upon 
these points, his determination was fixed ; his purpose was im- 
movable. " I would rather be right than President," was the 
expression of his genuine feelings, and the principle by which 
he was controlled in his public career — a saying worthy of im- 
mortality, and proper to be inscribed upon the heart of every 
young man in this Republic. And yet, sir, with all of that per- 
sonal and moral intrepidity which so eminently marked the 
character of Mr. Clat ; with his well-known inflexibility of pur- 
pose and unyielding resolution, such was the genuine sin- 
cerity of his patriotism, and such his thorough comprehension 
of those principles of compromise, upon which the whole 
structure of our Government was founded, that no one was 
more prompt to relax the rigor of his policy the moment he 
perceived that it was calculated to disturb the harmony of the 
States, or to endanger, in any degree, the stability of the Gov- 
ernment. With him the love of this Union was a passion — an 
absorbing sentiment — whit^h gave color to every act of his pub- 
lic life. It triumphed over party ; it triumphed over policy ; it 
subdued the natural fierceness and liaughtiness of his temper, 
and brought him into the most kindly and coi-dial relations with 
those who, upon all other questions, were deeply and bitterly 
opposed to him. It has been asserted, sir, upon high medical 
authority, and doubtless with truth, that his life was, in all prob- 
ability, shortened ten years by the arduous and extraordinary 
labors which he assumed at the memorable session of 1850. If 
so, he has added the crowning glory of the martyr to the spot- 
less fame of the- patriot; and we may well hope that a great 
national pacification, purchased at such a sacrifice, will long- 
continue to cement the bonds of this now happy and prosperous 
Union. 

Mr. Clay possessed in an eminent degree, the qualiiies of a 
great popular leader ; and history, I will assume to sav, affords 
no example in any Republic, ancient or modei-n, of any indi- 



4:00 EULOGY OF MR. FAULKNER. 

vidual that so fearlessly carried out the convictions of his own 
judgment, and so sparingly flattered the prejudices of popular 
feeling, who, for so long a period, exercised the same controlling 
influence over the public mind. Earnest in whatever measure 
he sustained, fearless in attack — dexterous in defense — abound- 
ing in intellectual resource — eloquent in debate — of inflexible 
purpose, and with a "courage never to submit or yield," no 
man ever lived with higher qualifications to rally a desponding 
party, or to lead an embattled host to victory. That he never 
attained the highest post of honorable ambition in this country, 
is not to be ascribed to any want of capacity as a popular leader, 
nor to the absence of those qualities which attract the fidelity 
and devotion of "troops" of admiring friends. It was the for- 
tune of Napoleon, at a critical period of his destiny, to be 
brought into collision with the star of Wellington ; and it was 
the fortune of Hknry Clay to have encountered, in his political 
orbit, another great and original mind, gifted with equal power 
for commanding success, and blessed with more fortunate ele- 
ments, concurring at the time, of securing popular favor. The 
struggle was such as might have been anticipated from the col- 
lision of two such fierce and powerful rivals. For near a quar- 
ter of a century this great Republic has been convulsed to its 
center by the divisions which have sprung from their respective 
opinions, policy, and personal destinies ; and even now, when 
they have both been removed to a higher and a better sphere of 
existence, and when every unkind feeling has been quenched in 
the triumphs of the grave, this country still feels, and for years 
will continue to feel, the influence of those agitations to which 
their powerful and impressive characters gave impulse and 
direction. 

But I must pause. If I were to attempt to present all the 
aspects in which the character of tbis illustrious man will chal- 
lenge the applause of history, I should fatigue the House, and 
violate the just limit allowed for such remarks. 

I can not, however, conclude, sir, without making some more 
special allusion to Mr. Clay, as a native of that State which I 
have (he honor, in part, to represent upon this floor. We are all 



EULOGY OF MR. FAULKNER. 401 

proud, and very properly proud, of the distinguished men to 
whom our respective States have given birth. It is a just and 
laudable emulation, and one, in a confederated government like 
ours, proper to be encouraged. And while men like Mr. Clay 
very rapidly rise above the confined limits of a State reputation, 
and acquire a national fame, in which all claim, and all have an 
equal interest, still there is a propriety and fitness in preserving 
the relation between the individual and his State. Virginia has 
given birth to a large number of men who have, by their distin- 
guished talents and services, impressed their names upon the 
hearts and memories of their countrymen ; but certainly, since 
the colonial era, she has given birth to no man, who, in the mas- 
sive and gigantic proportions of his character, and in the splen- 
dor of his native endowments, can be compared to Henri- Clay. 
At an early age he emigrated from his native State, and found a 
home in Kentucky. In a speech which he delivered in the 
Senate of the United States, in February, 1842 — and which I 
well remember — upon the occasion of his resigning his seat in 
that body, he expressed the wish that, when that event should 
occur which has now clothed this city in mourning, and filled 
the nation with grief, his "earthly remains should be laid under 
the green sod of Kentucky, with those of her gajlant and patri- 
otic sons." 

Sir, however gratifying it might be to us that his remain.s 
should be transferred to his native soil, to there minole with the 
ashes of "Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lee, and Henry, we 
can not complain of the very natural preference which he has 
himself expressed. If Virginia did give him birth — Kentucky 
has nourished him in his manhood — has freely lavished upon 
him her highest honors — has shielded him from harm when the 
clouds of calumny and detraction gathered heavily and lower- 
ingly about him, and she has watched over his fame with the 
tenderness and zeal of a mother. Sir, it is not to be wondered 
that he should have expressed the wish he did, to be laid by the 
side of her gallant and patriotic sons. Happy Kentucky ! 
Happy, in having an adopted son so worthy of her highest hon- 
ors. Happv, in the unshaken fidelity and loyaltv with which, 
34 



402 EULOGY OF MB. FAULKNEE. 

for near half a century, those honors have been so steadfastly and 
gracefully accorded to him. 

Sir, while Virginia, in the exercise of her own proper judg- 
ment has differed from Mr. Clay in some of his views of 
national policy, she has never, at any period of his public career, 
failed to regard him with pride, as one of her most distin- 
guished sons ; to honor the purity and the manliness of his 
character, and to award to him the high credit of an honest and 
sincere devotion to his country's welfare. And now, sir, that 
death has arrested forever the pulsations of that mighty heart, 
and sealed in eternal silence those eloquent lips, upon whose 
accents thousands have so often hung in rapture, I shall stand 
justified in saying that a wail of lamentation will be heard from 
her people — her whole people — reverberating through her moun- 
tains and valleys, as deep, as genuine, and as sincere as that, 
which I know, will swell the noble hearts and the heaving 
bosoms of the people of his own cherished and beloved Ken- 
tucky. 

Sir, as I walked to the Capitol this morning, every object 
which attracted my eye admonished me that a nation's benefac- 
tor had departed from among us. He is gone 1 Henry Clay, 
the idol of his friends, the ornament of the Senate Chamber, 
the pride of his country ; he whose presence gathered crowds 
of his admiring fellow-men around him, as if he had been one 
descended from above, has passed forever from our view. 

"His soul, enlarged from its vile bonds, has gone 
To that REFULGENT world, where it shall swim 
In liquid light, and float on seas of bliss." 

But the memory of his virtues, and of his services, will be S- 
gratefully embalmed in the hearts of his countrymen, and gen- 
erations yet unborn will be taught to lisp, with reverence and 
enthusiasm, the name of Henry Clay. 



EULOGY OF MR. PARKER. 



Me PARKER then addressed the House :— 

Mr. Speaker — This is a solemn — a consecrated hour. And 
I would not detain the members of the House from indulging in 
the silence of their own feelings, so grateful to hearts chastened 
as ours. 

But I can not restrain an expression from a bosom pained 
with its fullness. 

When my young thoughts first took cognizance of the fact 
that I have a country — my eye was attracted by the magnificent 
proportions of Henry Clay. 

The idea absorbed me then, that he was, above all other men, 
the embodiment of my country's genius. 

I have watched him ; I hare studied him ; I have ad- 
mired him — and, God forgive me! for he was but a man, "of 
like passions with us" — I fear I have idolized him, until this 
hour. 

But he has gone from among men ; and it is for rrs now to 
awake and apply ourselves, with renewed fervor and increased 
fidelity, to the welfare of the country he loved so well, and 
served so truly and so long — the glorious country yet saved to 
us! 

Yes, Henry Clay has fallen, at last ! — as the ripe oak falls in 
the stillness of the forest. But the verdant and gorgeous rich- 
ness of his glories will only fade and wither from the earth, 
when his country's history shall have been forgotten. 

(408; 



404: EULOGY OF MR. PARKEK. 

"One generation passeth away and another generation com- 
eth." Thus it has been from the beginning, and thus it will be, 
until time shall be no longer. 

Yesterday morning, at eleven o'clock, the spirit of Henry 
Clay — so long the pride and glory of his own country, and the 
admiration of all the world — was yet with us, though struggling 
to be free. Ere "high noon" came, it had passed over "the 
dark river," through the gate, into the celestial city, inhabited 
by all the "just made perfect." 

May not our rapt vision contemplate him there, this day, 
in sweet communion with the dear friends that have gone 
before him ? — with Madison, and Jefferson, and Washington, 
and Henry, and Franklin — with the eloquent Tully, with the 
"divine Plato," with Aaron the Levite, who could "speak 
well" — with all the great and good, since and before the 
flood ! 

His princely tread has graced these aisles for the last time. 
These Halls will wake no more to the magic music of his 
voice. 

Did that tall spirit, in its ethereal form, enter the courts of 
the upper sanctuary, bearing itself comparably with the spirits 
there, as was his walk among men ? 

Did the mellifluous tones of his greeting there enrapture the 
hosts of Heaven, comparably with his strains " to stir men's 
blood" on earth? 

Then, may we not fancy, when it was announced to the in- 
habitants of that better country. He comes ! — He comes ! — there 
was a rustling of angel- wings — a thrilling joy — up there, only 
to be witnessed once in an earthly age ? 

Adieu ! — a last adieu to thee, Henry Clay ! 

The hearts of all thy countrymen are melted, on this day, 
because of the thought that thou art gone. 

Could we have held the hand of the " insatiate archer," thou 
hadst not died ; but thou wouldst have tarried with us, in the 
full grandeur of thy greatness, until we had no longer need of a 
country. 



EULOGY OF MR. PARKER. 405 

But we thank our Heavenly Father that thou wast given to 
us ; and that thou didst survive so long. 

We would cherish thy memory while we live, as our country's 
JEWEL — than which none is richer. And we will teach oui- 
children the lessons of matchless patriotism thou hast taught 
us ; with the fond hope that our Liberty and our Union may 
only expire with " the last of earth." 



/ 



EULOGY OF MR. GENTRY. 



Me. gentry tlien addressed the House :— 

Mr. Speaker — I do not rise to pronounce a eulogy on the life 
and character, and public services, of the illustrious orator and 
statesman whose death this nation deplores. Suitably to per- 
form that task, a higher eloquence than I possess might essay in 
vain. The gushing tears of the nation, the deep grief which 
oppresses the hearts of more than twenty millions of people, 
constitute a more eloquent eulogium upon the life and character, 
and patriot services of Henry Clay, than the power of language 
can express. In no part of our country is that character more 
admired, or those public services more appreciated, than in the 
State, which I have the honor, in part, to represent. I claim for 
the people of that State a full participation in the general woe 
which the sad announcement of to-day will every where inspire. 






EULOGY OF MR. BOWIE. 



Me. BOWIE then addressed the House : — 

Mr. Speaker — I rise not to utter the measured phrases of 
premeditated woe, but to speak, as my constituency would, if 
they stood around the grave now opening to receive the mortal 
remains, not of a statesman only, but of a beloved friend. 

If there is a State in this Union, other than Kentucky, which 
sends up a wail of more bitter and sincere sorrow than another, 
that State is Maryland. 

In her midst, the departed statesman was a frequent and a 
welcome guest. At many a board, and many a fireside, his 
noble form was the light of the eyes, the idol of the heart. 
Throughout her borders, in cottage, hamlet, and city, his name 
is a household word, his thoughts are familiar sentences. 

Though not permitted to be the first at his cradle, Maryland 
would be the last at his tomb. 

Through all the phases of political fortune, amid all the 
storms which darkened his career, Maryland cherished him in 
her inmost heart, as the most gifted, patriotic and eloquent of 
men. To this hour, prayers ascend from many domestic altars, 
evening and morning, for his temporal comfort and eternal wel- 
fare. In the language of inspiration, Maryland would exclaim, 
" There is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel." 
Daughters of America! weep for him "who hath clothed you 
in scarlet and fine linen." 

The husbandman at his plow, the artisan at the anvil, and 



408 EULOGY OF MR. BOWIE. 

the seaman on the mast, -will pause and drop a tear when he 
hears Clay is no more. 

The advocate of freedom in both hemispheres, he will be la- 
mented alike on the shores of the Hellespont and the banks of 
the Mississippi and Orinoco. The freed men of Liberia, learning 
and practicing the art of self-government, and civilizing Africa, 
have lost in him a patron and protector, a father and a friend. 
America mourns the eclipse of a luminary, which enlightened 
and illuminated the continent ; the United States, a counselor 
of deepest wisdom and purest purpose ; mankind, the advocate 
of human rights and constitutional liberty. 



EULOGY OF ME. WALSH. 



Mr. WALSH then addressed the House : — 

Mr. Speaker — The illustrious man whose death we this day 
mourn, was so long my political leader — so long almost the ob- 
ject of my personal idolatry — that I can not allow that he shall 
go down to the grave, without a word at least of affectionate 
remembrance — without a tribute to a memory which will exact 
tribute as long as a heart shall be found to beat within the 
bosom of civilized man, and human agency shall be adequate 
in any form to give them an expression ; and even, sir, if I 
had no heartfelt sigh to pour out here — if I had no tear for that 
coffin's lid, I should do injustice to those whose representative, 
in part, I am, if I did not in this presence, and at this time, 
raise my voice to swell the accents of the profoundest public 
sorrow. 

The State of Maryland has always vied with Kentucky in 
love and adoration of his name. Her people have gathered 
around him with all the fervor of a first afi*ection, and with 
more than its duration. Troops of friends have ever clustered 
about his pathway with a personal devotion which each man 
of them regarded as the highest individual honor — friends, sir, 
to whose firesides the tidings of his death will go with all 
the withering influences which are felt when household ties are 
severed. 

I wish, sir, I could offer now a proper memorial for such a 
subject and snch an affection. But as I strive to utter it, I feel 

35 C409) 



410 EULOGY OF ME. WALSH, 

the disheartening influence of the Avell-known truth, that in view 
of death all minds sink into triteness. It would seem, indeed, 
sir, that the great leveler of our race would vindicate his title to 
be so considered, by making all men think alike in regard to his 
visitation — " the thousand thoughts that begin and end in one " — 
the desolation here — the eternal hope hereafter — are influences 
felt alike by the lowest intellect and the loftiest genius. 

Mr. Speaker, a statesman for more than fifiy years in {\\q 
councils of his country, Avhose peculiar charge it was to see that 
the Republic suffered no detriment — a patriot for all times, all 
circumstances, and all emergencies — has passed away from the 
trials and triumphs of the world, and gone to his reAvard. Sad 
as are the emotions which such an event would ordinarily excite, 
their intensity is hightened by the matters so fresh within the 
memories of us all : 

" Oh ! tliink lio-w to his latest day. 
When dealh, just hovering, claim'd his prey. 
With Palinurus' unalter'd mood, 
Firm at his dangerous post he stood 
Each call for needful rest rcpell'd, 
With dying hand the rudder held ; 
Then while on Freedom's thousand plains 
One unpolluted church remains. 
Whose peaceful hells ne'er sent around 
The bloody tocsin's maddening sound. 
But still upon the hallow'd day. 
Convoke the swains to praise and pray. 
While faith and civil peace are dear, 
Greet his cold marble with a tear; 
He who preserved them — Clay — lies here." 

In a character, Mr. Speaker, so illustrious and beautiful, it 
is difficult to select any point for particular notice, from those 
which go to make up its noble proportions ; but we may now, 
around his honored grave, call to grateful recollection that in- 
vincible spirit which no personal sorrow could sully, and no 
disaster could overcome. Be assured, sir, that he has in this 
regard left a legacy to the young men of the Republic, almost 



EULOGY OF MR. WALSH. 411 

as sacred and as dear as that liberty of which his life was a 
blessed illustration. 

We can all remember, sir, when adverse political results dis- 
heartened his friends, and made them feel even as men without 
hope, that his own clarion voice was still heard in the purpose 
and the pursuit of right, as bold and as eloquent as when it 
first proclaimed the freedom of the seas, and its talismauic tones 
struck off the badges of bondage from the lands of the Incas, 
and the plains of Marathon. 

Mr. Speaker, in the exultation of the statesman he did not 
forget the duties of the man. He was an affectionate adviser on 
all points wherein inexperienced youth might require counsel. 
He was a disinterested sympathizer in personal sorrows that 
called for consolation. He was ever upright and honorable in 
all the duties incident to his relations in life. 

To an existence so lovely. Heaven, in its mei'cy, granted a 
fitting and appropriate close. It was the prayer, Mr. Speaker, 
of a distinguished citizen, Avho died some years since in the me- 
tropolis, even while his spirit was fluttering for its final flight, 
that he might depart gracefully. It may not be presumptious 
to say, that what was in that instance the aspii-ation of a chival- 
rie gentleman, was in this the realization of the dying Christian, 
in which was blended all that human dignity could require, with 
all that Divine grace had conferred ; in which the firmness of 
the man was only transcended by the fervor of the penitent. 

A short period before his death he remarked to one by his 
bedside, "that he was fearful that he was becomino- selfish, as 
his thoughts were entirely withdrawn from the world and cen- 
tered upon eternity." This, sir, was but the purification of his 
noble spirit from all the dross of earth — a happy illustration of 
what the religious muse has so sweetly sung — 

" No sin to stain — no lure to stay 
The soul, as home she springs ; 
Thy sunshine on her joyful way 
Thy freedom in her ■wings."' 

Mr. Speaker, the solemnities of this hour may soon be for- 



412 EULOGY OF MR. WALSH. 

gotten. We may come back from the new-made grave only still 
to show that we consider "eternity the bubble, life and time the 
enduring substance." We may not pause long enough by the 
brink to ask which of us revelers of to-day shall next be at rest. 
But be assured, sir, that upon ihe records of mortality will 
never be inscribed a name more illustrious than that of the 
Btatesman, patriot, and friend whom the nation mourns. 



.^ 



EULOGY OF MR. CRITTENDEN. 



DELIVERED 



AT LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1852. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — 

I am very sensible of the difficulty and magnitude of the task 
Avhich I have undertaken. I am to address you in commemo- 
ration of the public services of Henry Clay, and in celebration 
of his obsequies. His death filled his whole country with 
mourning, and the loss of no citizen, save the Father of his 
Country, has ever produced such manifestations of the grief and 
homage of the public heart. His history has indeed been read 
"in a nation's eyes." A nation's tears proclaim, with their 
silent eloquence, its sense of the national loss. Kentucky has 
more than a common share in this national bereavement. To 
her it is a domestic grief — to her belongs the sad privilege of 
being the chief mourner. He Avas her favorite son, her pride, 
and her glory. She mourns for him as a mother. But let her 
not mourn as those who have no hope of consolation. She can 
find the richest and the noblest solace in the memory of her 
son, and of his great and good actions ; and his fame will cume 
back, like a comforter from his grave, to Avipe away her tears. 
Even while she weeps for him her tears sliall be mingled with 
the proud feelings of tiiuniph wliich his name will inspire ; 



414 EULOGY OF MK. CKITTKNDEN, 

and Old Kentucky, from the depths of her affectionate and 
heroic heart, shall exclaim, like the Duke of Ormond, when in- 
formed that his brave son had fallen in battle, " I would not 
exchange my dead son for any living son in Christendom." 

From these same abundant sources we may hope that the 
widowed partner of his life, who now sits in sadness at Ashland, 
will derive some pleasinc" consolation. I presume not to oft'er 
any words of comfort . my own. Her grief is too sacred to 
permit me to use that privilege. 

You, Sons and Daugliters of Kentucky, have assembled here 
to commemorate his life and death. How can I address you 
suitably on such a theme ? I feel the oppressive consciousness 
that 1 can not do it in terms adequate to the subject, or to your 
excited feelings. I am no orator, nor- have I come here to 
attempt any idle or vainglorious display of words ; I come as a 
plain Kentuckian, Avho, sympathizing in all your feelings, pre- 
sents you with this address, as his poor offering, to be laid upon 
that altar which you are here erecting to the memory of Henry 
Clay. Let it not be judged according to its own value, but ac- 
cording to the spirit in which it is offered. 

It would be no difficult task to address you, on this occasion, 
in the extravagant and rhetorical language that is usual in 
funeral oi'ations. But my subject deserves a different treatment. 
The monumental name of Henry Clay rises above all mere 
personal favor and flattery ; it rejects them, and challenges the 
scrutiny and the judgment of the world. The noble use to 
which his name should be applied is to teach his country, by 
his example, lessons of public virtue and political wisdom ; to 
teach patriots and statesmen how to act, how to live, and how to 
die. I can but glance at a subject that spreads out in such 
bright and boundless expanse before me. 

Henry Clay lived in a most eventful period, and the histoiy 
of his life for forty years has been literally that of his country. 
He was so identified with the Government for moi'e than two- 
thirds of its existence, that during that time hardly any act, 
which has redounded to its honor, its prosperity, its present 
rank among the nations of the earth, can be spoken of without 



EULOGY OF MR. CRITTENDEN. 4^5 

calling to mind, involuntarily, the lineaments of Lis noble per- 
son. It would be difficult to determine whether in peace or in 
war ; in the field of legislation or of diplomacy ; in the sprino-- 
tide of his life, or in its golden ebb, he won the higheal honor. 
It can be no disparagement to any one of his cotemporaries to 
say, that, in all the points of practical statesmanship, he en- 
countered no superior in any of the employments which his con- 
stituents or his country conferred upon liim. 

For the reason that he had been so much and so constantly in 
the public eye, an elaborate review of his life will not be ex- 
pected of me. All that I shall attempt will be to sketch a few 
leading traits, which may serve to give those who have had 
fewer opportunities of observation than I had, something like a 
just idea of his public character and services. If, in doincr 
this, I speak more at large of the earlier than 'of the later period 
of his life, it is because, in regard to the former, though of vast 
consequence, intervening years have thrown them somewhat in 
the back ground. 

Passing by, therefore, the prior service of Mr. Clay in the 
Senate for brief periods in 1806 and '10-' 11, I come at once to 
his Speakership in the House of Representatives, and his con- 
sequent agency in the war of 1812. 

To that war our country is indebted for much of the security, 
freedom, prosperity, and reputation, which it now enjoys. It 
has been truly said by one of the living actors in that perilous 
era [Hon. Mr. Rush], that the very act of going to war Avas 
heroic. By the supremacy of the naval power of England, the 
fleets of all Europe had been swept from the seas ; the banner of 
the United States alone floated in solitary fearlessness. Eno-land 
seemed to encircle the earth with her navies, and to be the un- 
disputed mistress of the ocean. We went out upon the deep 
with a sling in our hands. When, in all time, were such fearful 
odds seen as we had against us ? 

The events of the war with England, so memorable, and even 
wonderful, are too familiar to all to require any particular recital 
on this occasion. Of tliat war — of its causes and consequences — 
of Its disasters, its bloody battles, and its glorious victories by 



416 EULOGY OF MK, CRITTENDEN. 

land and sea, history and our own official records have given a 
faithful narrative. A just national pride has engraven that nar- 
rative upon our hearts. But even in the fiercest conflicts of that' 
■war, there was nothing more truly heroic than the declaration of 
it by Congress. 

Of that declaration — of the incidents, personal influences, 
and anxious deliberations, which preceded and led to it — the 
history is not so well or generally known. The more it is 
known, the more it will appear how important was the part that 
Mr. Clay acted, and how much we are indebted to him for all 
the glorious and beneficial issues of the declaration of that war, 
which has not inappropriately been called the Second War of 
Independence. 

The public grounds of the war were the injustice, injury, and 
insults inflicted on the United States by the Government of 
Great Britain, then engaged in a war of maritime edicts with 
France, of which the commerce of the United States was the 
victim ; our merchant ships being captured by British cruisers 
on every sea, and confiscated by her courts, in utter contempt 
of the rights of this nation- as an independent power. Added 
to this, and more oflFensive than even these outrages, was the ar- 
rogation by the same power, of a right to search American ves- 
sels, for the purpose of impressing seamen from vessels sailing 
under the American flag. These aggressions upon our national 
rights constituted, undoubtedly, justifiable cause of war. With 
equal justice on our part, and on the same grounds (impress- 
ment of seamen excepted) we should have been warranted in 
declaring war against France also ; but common sense (not to 
speak of policy) forbade our engaging with two nations at once, 
and dictated the selection, as an adversary, of the one that had 
power, which the other had not, to carry its arbitrary edicts into 
full efiect. The war was really, on our part, a war for national 
existence. 

When Congress assembled in November, 1811, the crisis was 
upon us. But, as may be readily imagined, it could be no easy 
matter to nerve the heart of Congress, all unprepared for the 



KUI.OGY OF MR. CRITTENDEN. 417 

dread encounter, to take the step, Avhich there could be no re- 
tracino-, of a declaration of war. 

Nor could that task, in all probability, ever have been accom- 
plished, but for the concurrence, purely accidental, of two cir- 
cumstances ; the one, the presence of Henrt Clay in the Chair 
of the popular branch of the National Legislature, and the other, 
(liat >ji James Monroe, as Secretary of State, in the Executive 
Administration of the Government. 

Mr. Monroe had returned but a year or two before from a 
course of public service abroad, in which, as Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary, he had represented the United States at the several 
courts, in succession, of France, Spain, and Great Britain. 
From the last of these missions he had come home thoroughly 
disgusted with the contemptuous manner in which the rights of 
the United States were treated by the belligerent Powers, and 
especially by England. This treatment, Avhich even extended 
to the personal intercourse between their Ministers and the Rep- 
resentatives of this country, he considered as indicative o'f a 
settled determination on their parts — presuming upon the sup- 
posed incapacity of this Government for war — to reduce to system 
a course of conduct calculated to debase and prostrate us in the 
eyes of the world. Reasoning thus, he had brought his mind 
to a serious and firm conviction, that the riohts of the United 
States, as a nation, would never be respected by the Powers of 
the Old World until this Government summoned up resolu- 
tion to resent such usage, not by arguments and protests merely, 
but by an appeal to arms. Full of this sentiment, Mr. Monroe 
was called, upon a casual vacancy, when it was least expected 
by himself or the country, to the head of the Department of 
State. That sentiment, and the feelings which we have thus 
accounted for, Mr. Monroe soon communicated to his asso- 
ciates in the Cabinet, and, in some degree, it might well be 
supposed, to the great statesman then at the head of the Govern- 
ment. 

The tone of President Madison's first messao-e to Conijress 
(November 5, 1811), a few mouths only after Mr. Monroe's ac- 



418 EULOGY OF MR. CRITTENDEN. 

cession to the Cabinet, can leave hardly a doubt in any mind of 
such having been the case. That message was throughout of 
the gravest cast, reciting the aggressions and aggravations of 
Great Britain, as demanding resistance, and urging upon Con- 
gress the duty of putting the country "into an armor and an 
attitude demanded by the crisis, and corresponding Avith the 
national spirit and expectations." 

It was precisely at this point of time that Mr. Clay, having 
resigned his seat in the Senate, appeared on the floor of the 
House of Representatives, and was chosen, almost by acclama- 
tion, Speaker of that body. From that moment he exercised an 
influence in a great degree personal, which materially affected, 
if it did not control, the judgment of the House. Among the 
very first acts which devolved upon him, by virtue of his office, 
was the appointment of the committees raised upon the Presi- 
dent's message. Upon the Select Committee of nine members, 
to which was referred "so much of the message as relates to 
our foreign relations," he appointed a large proportion from 
among the fast friends of the Administration, nearly all of them 
being new members, and younger than himself, though he was 
not then more than thirty-five years of age. It is impossible, at 
this day, to call to mind the names of which this committee was 
composed (Porter, Calhoun and Grundy, being the first named 
among them), without coming to the conclusion that the com- 
mittee was constituted with a view to the event predetermined in 
the mind of the Speaker. There can be no question that when, 
quitting the Senate, Mr. Clay entered the Uepresentative body, 
he had become satisfied that, by the continued encroachments 
of Great Britain on our national rights, the choice of the countiy 
was narrowed down to war or submission. Between these there 
could be no hesitation, in such a mind as that of Mr. Clay, 
which to choose. In this emergency he acted for his country, 
as he would, in a like case, have acted for himself Desiring 
and cultivating the good will of all, he never shrank from any 
personal responsibility, nor cowered before any danger. More 
than a year before his accession to the House of Representatives 
he had, in a debate in the Senate, taken occasion to say, that 



EULOGY OJ^ MK. CRITTENDEN. 419 

"he most sincerely desired peace and amity with England; thai 
he even preferred an adjustment of all differences with her, 
10 one with any other nation ; but, if she persisted in a denial 
of justice to us, he trusted and hoped that all hearts would unite 
in a bold and vigorous vindication of our rights." It was in 
this brave spirit, animated to increased fervency by intervening 
ao-o-i-essions from the same quarter, that Mr. Clay entered into 
the House of Representatives. 

Eaily in the second month of the session, availing himself of 
the right then freely used by the Speaker, to engage in discus- 
sions while the House was in Committee of the Whole, he 
dashed into the debates upon the measures of military and 
naval preparation recommended by the President, and reported 
upon favorably by the committee. He avowed, without reserve, 
that the object of this preparation was war, and war with Great 
Britain. 

In these debates he showed his familiarity with all the weapons 
of popular oratory. In a tempest of eloquence, in which he 
wielded alternately argument, persuasion, remonstrance, ridicule, 
and reproach, he swept before him all opposition to the high re- 
solve to which he exhorted Congress. To the argument (for 
example) against preparing for a war with England, founded 
upon the idea of her being engaged, in her conflict with France, 
in lighting the battles of the world, he replied, that such a pur- 
pose would be best achieved by a scrupulous observance of the 
rio-hts of others, and by respecting that public law which she 
professed to vindicate. "Then," said he, "she would com- 
mand the sympathies of the world. But Avhat are we required 
to do, by those who would engage our feelings and wishes in 
her behalf? To bear the actual cuffs of her arrogance, that we 
may escape a chimerical French subjugation. We are called 
upon to submit to debasement, dishonor, and disgrace ; to bow 
the neck to royal insolence, as a course of preparation for manly 
resistance to Gallic invasion ! What nation, what individual, 
was ever taught in the schools of ignominious submission these 
patriotic lessons of freedom and independence ! " And to the 
ai>'ument lliat this Government was unfit for any war but a war 



420 EULOGY OF ME. CRITTENDEN. 

against invasion — so signally since disproved by actual events — 
he exclaimed, with characleristic vehemence, "What! is it not 
equivalent to invasion, if the mouth of our harbors and outlets 
are blocked up, and we are denied egress from our own waters ? 
Or, when the burglar is at our door, shall we bravely sally 
forth and repel his felonious entrance, or meanly skulk within 
the cells of the castle ?****** 
What ! sliall it be said that our amor 2^atrioe is located at 
these desks ; that we pusillanimously cling to our seats here, 
rather than boldly vindicate the most inestimable rights of our 
country ? " 

While in debate upon other occasions, at nearly the same time, 
he showed how well he could reason upon a question, which de- 
manded argument I'ather than declamation. To his able sup- 
port of the proposition of Mr. Cheves to add to our then small 
but gallant navy ten frigates, may be ascribed the success, 
though by a lean majority, of that proposition. Replying to 
the objection urged with zeal by certain members, that navies 
were dangerous to liberty, he argued that the source of this 
alarm was in themselves. "Gentlemen fear," said he, " that if 
we provide a marine, it will produce collision with foreign na- 
tions, plunge us into war, and ultimately overturn the constitu- 
tion of the country. Sir, if you wish to avoid foreign collision, 
you had better abandon the ocean, surrender all your commerce, 
give up all your prosperity. It is the thing protected, not the 
instrument of protection, that involves you in war. Commerce 
engenders collision, collision war, and war, the argument sup- 
poses, leads to despotism. Would the counsels of that states- 
man be deemed wise, who would recommend that the nation 
should be unarmed ; that the art of war, the martial spirit 
and martial exercises, should be prohibited ; who should de- 
clare, in a word, that the great body of the people should be 
taught that national happiness was to be found in perpetual peace 
alone?" 

While Mr. Clay, in the Capitol, was, with his trumpet tongue, 
rousing Congress to prepare for war, Mr. Monroe, the Secretary 
of Slate, gave his powerful co-operaiion, and lent the Nestor-like 



EULOGY OF MR. CKITTENDEN. 421 

sanction of his age and experience to the bold measures of his 
young and more ardent compatriot. It was chiefly through 
their fearless influence that Congress was gradually warmed up 
to a war spirit, and to the adoption of some preparatory measures. 
But no actual declaration of war had yet been proposed. There 
was a strong opposition in Congress, and the President, Mr. 
Madison, hesitated to recommend it, only because he doubted 
whether Congress was yet sufficiently determined and resolved 
to maintain such a declaration, and to maintain it to all the ex- 
tremities of war. 

The influence and counsel of Mr. Clay again prevailed. He 
waited upon the President, at the head of a deputation of mem- 
bers of Congress, and assured him of the readiness of a majority 
of Congress to vote the war if recommended by him. Upon 
this the President immediately recommended it by his message 
to Congress of the first Monday of June, 1812. A bill de- 
claring war with Great Britain soon followed in Congress, and, 
after a discussion in secret session for a few days, became a law. 
Then beo;an the war. 

When the doors of the House of Representatives were opened, 
the debates which had taken place in secret session were spoken 
of and repeated, and it appeared, as must have been expected by 
all, (hat Mr. Clay had been the great defender and champion of 
the declaration of war. 

Mr. Clay continued in the House of Representatives for some 
time after the commencement of the war, and having assisted in 
doing all that could be done for it in the way of legislation, was 
withdrawn from his position in Congress to share in the delib- 
erations of the great Conference of American and British Com- 
missioners held at Ghent. His part in that Convention was such 
as might have been expected from his course in Congress, high- 
toned and high-spirited, despairing of nothing. 

I need not add, but for form, that, acting in this spirit, Mr. 
Clay and his patriotic and able associates succeeded beyond all 
the hopes at that time entertained at home in making a treaty, 
wliich, in putting a stop to the war, if it did not accomplish 



423 EULOGY OF MK, CRITTENDEN 

I 

every thing contended for, saved and secured at all points the ' 

honor of the United States. 

Thus began and ended the war of 1812. On our part it was 
just and necessary, and, in its results, eminently beneficial and < 

honorable. { 

Tiie benefits of it have extended to all the world ; for in vin- 
dicating our own maritime rights we established the freedom of r-^\ 
the seas to all nations, and since then no one of them has arro- % i 
gated or exercised any supremacy upon that ocean, given by the 
Almighty as the common and equal inheritance of all. 

To Henry Clay, as its chief mover and author belongs the 
statesman's portion of the glory of that war ; and to the same 
Henry Clay, as one of the makers and signers of the treaty by 
which it was terminated, belong the blessings of the peace- 
maker. His crown is made up of the jewels of peace and of 

war. 

Prompt to take up arms to resent our wrongs and vindicate 
our national rights, the return of peace was yet gladly hailed 
by the whole country. And well it might be. Our military 
character, at the lowest point of degradation when we dared tlie 
fight, had been retrieved; the national honor, insulted at all 
the courts of Europe, had been redeemed ; the freedom of the 
seas secured to our flag and all who sail under it ; and, wliat 
was most influential in inspiring confidence at home, and assur- 
ing respect abroad, Avas the demonstration, by the result of the 
late conflict, of the competency of this Government for effective 
war, as it had before proved itself for all the duties of a season 
of peace. 

The Congress Avhich succeeded the war, to a seat in which 
Mr. Clay was elected while yet abroad, exhibited the features 
of a national jubilee, in place of the gravity and almost gloom 
which had settled on the countenance of the same body during 
the latter part of the war and of the conferences of Ghent. 
Joy shone on every face. Justly has that period been termed 
"the era of good feeling." Again placed in the chair of the 
House of Representatives, and all-important questions being 
then considered as in Committee of the Whole, in which the 



EULOGY OF MR. CRITTENDEN. 423 

Speaker descends to the floor of the House, Mr. Clay distin- 
guished himself in the debates upon every question of interest 
that came up, and was the author, during that and following 
Congresses, of more important measures than it has been the 
fortune of any other member, either then or since, to have his 
name identified Avith. 

It would exceed the proper limits of this discourse to particu- 
larize all those measures. I can do no more than refer to a very 
few of them which have become landmarks in the history of our 
coxxntry. 

First in order of these was his origination of the first proposi- 
tion for a recognition of the independence of the States of «outh 
America, then struggling for liberty. This was on the 24th of 
March, 1818. It was on that day that he first formally presented 
tlie proposition to the House of Representatives. But neither 
the President nor Congress was then prepared for a measure so 
bold and decisive ; and it was rejected by a large majority of 
the House, though advocated and urged by him with all the ve- 
hemence and power of his unsurpassed ability and eloquence. 
Undaunted by this defeat, he continued to pursue the subject 
with all the inflexible energy of his character. On the 3d of 
April, 1820, he renewed his proposition for the recognition of 
South American Independence, and finally succeeded, against 
strong opposition, not only in passing it through the House of 
Representatives, but in inducing that body to adopt the em- 
phatic and exti-aordinary course of sending it to the President 
by a committee, specially appointed for the purpose. Of that 
committee Mr. Clay was the chairman, and, at its head, per- 
formed the duty assigned them. In the year 1822 Mr. Clay's 
noble exertions on this great subject were crowned with com- 
plete success, by the President's formal recognition of South 
American Independence, with the sanction of Congress. 

It requiies some little exertion, at this day, to turn our 
minds back, and contemplate the vast importance of tlie revo- 
huions then in progress in South America, as the subject Avas 
then presented, with all tlie unceilaiiiiies and perils that sur- 
I'ounded it. Tho.se revohuiijus consiiiuioi! a o-i^eat movfment in 



424: EULOGY OF MR. CRITTENDEN. 

the moral and political world. By their results great interests 
and great principles, throughout the civilized world, and es- 
pecially in our own country, might and probably would be ma- 
terially affected. 

Mr. Clay comprehended the crisis. Its magnitude and its 
character were suited to his temper, and to his great intellect. 
He saw before him, throughout the vast continent of South 
America, the people of its various States, or provinces strug- 
gling to cast ofi" that Spanish oppression and tyranny which for 
three hundred years had weighed them down, and seeking to 
reclaim and re-establish their long-lost liberty and independence. | 
He saw them not only struggling, but succeeding; and with 
their naked hands, breaking their chains, and driving their op- 
pressors before them. But the conflict was not yet over ; Spain 
still continued to wage formidable and desperate hostilities 
against her colonies, to reduce them to submission. They were 
still struggling and bleeding, and the result yet depended on the 
uncertain issue of war. 

What a spectacle was there presented to the contemplation of 
the world ! The prime object of attention and interest there to 
be seen was man bravely strugr^ling for liberty. That was 
enough for Henry Clay. His generous soul overflowed with 
sympathy. But this was not all ; there were graver and higher 
considerations that belonged to the subject, and these were all 
felt and appreciated by Mr. Clay. 

If South America was re-subjugated by Spain, she would, in 
eff'ect, become European, and relapse into the system of Eu- 
ropean policy — the system of legitimacy, monarchy, and abso- 
lutism ; on the other hand, if she succeeded in establishing her 
independence, the principle of free institutions would be estab- 
lished with it, and republics kindred to our own would rise 
up to protect, extend, and defend the rights and liberties of 
mankind. 

It was not, then, a mere struggle between Spain and her colo- 
nies. In its consequences, at least, it went much further, and, 
in eff'ect, was a contest between the great antagonist principles 
and systems of arbitrary European Governments and of free 



EULOGY OF ME. CRITTENDEN. 425 

American Governments. Whether the millions of people who 
inhabited or were to inhabit, South America, were to become the 
victims and the instruments of the arbitrary principle, or the sup- 
porters of the free principle, was a question of momentous con- 
sequence now and in all time to come. 

With these views Mr. Clay, from sympathy and policy, em- 
braced the cause of South American Independence. He pro- 
posed no actual intervention in her behalf, but he wished to aid 
her with all the moral power and encouragement that could be 
given by a welcome recognition of her by the Government of 
the United States. 

To him belongs the distinguished honor of being Jirsi among 
the statesmen of the world to espouse and plead the cause of 
South America, and to propose and urge the recognition of her 
independence. And his own country is indebted to him for the 
honor of beinaf the first nation to offer that recognition. 

When the magnitude of the subject and the weighty interest 
and consequences attached to it are considered, it seems to me 
that there is no more palmy day in the life of Mr. Clay than 
that in which, at the head of his committee, he presented to the 
President the resolution of the House of Representatives in favor 
of the recognition of South American Independence. On that 
occasion he appears in all the sublimity of his nature, and the 
statesman, invested with all the sympathies and feelings of hu- 
manity, is enlarged and elevated into the character of the friend 
and guardian of universal liberty. 

How far South America may have been aided or influenced 
in her struggles by the recognition of our Government, or by 
the noble appeals which Mr. Clay had previously addressed, 
in her behalf, to Congress and to the world, I can not say ; but 
it is known that those speeches were read at the head of her 
armies, and that grateful thanks were returned. It is not too 
much to suppose that he exercised great influence in her affairs 
and destinies. 

Years after the first of Mr. Clay's noble exertions in the 

cause of South America, and some time after those exertions had 

led the Government of the United States to recognize the new 
3G 



426 EULOGY OF MK. CKITTENDEN 

States of South America, they were also recognized by the 
Government of Great Britain, and Mr. Canning-, her minister, 
thereupon took occasion to say, in the House of Commons, 
"there (alluding to South America), I have called a new world 
into existence!" That was a vain boast. If it can be said of 
any man, it must be said of Henry Clay that he called that 
"nevi world into existence!"* 

Mr. Clay was the Father of the policy of Internal Improve- 
ment by the General Government. The expediency of such 
legislation had indeed been suggested, in one of his later an- 
nual messages to Congress, by President Jefferson, and that 
suofo-estion was revived by President Madison in the last of his 
annual messages. The late Bank of the United States having 
been then just established, a bill passed in supposed conformity 
to Mr. Madison's recommendation, for setting aside the annual 
bonus to be paid by the Bank, as a fund for the purposes of 
Internal Improvement. This bill Mr. Madison very unexpect- 
edly, on the last day of the term of his office, returned to the 
House of Representatives without his signature, assigning the 
reasons for his withholding it — reasons which related rather to 
the form than the substance — and recommending an amendment 
to the Constitution to confer upon Congress the necessary power 
to carry out that policy. This bill, of course, fell through for 
that session. While this bill was on its passage, Mr. Clay had 
spoken in favor of it, declaring his own decided opinion in favoi 
of the constitutionality and expediency of the measure. Mr. 
Monroe, immediately succeeding Mr. Madison in the Presi- 
dency, introduced into his first annual message a declaration, in 
advance of any proposition on the subject, of a settled convic- 
tion on his mind that Congress did not possess the right to enter 
upon a system of Internal Improvement. But for this declara- 
tion, it may be doubted that the subject would have been again 
ao-itated so soon after Mr. Madison's veto. The threat of a re- 
currence to that resort by the new President, roused up a spu-it 



•See Mr. Rush's letter to Mr. Clay, 1st vol. Colton's Life of Henry Clay. 



EULOGY OF MK. CRITTENDEN. 427 

of defiance in the popular branch of Congress, and especially in 
the lion heart of Mr. Clay ; and, by his advice and counsel, a 
resolution was introduced, declaring that Congress has power, 
under the Constitution, to make appropriations for the construc- 
tion of military roads, post roads, and canals. Upon this prop- 
osition, in committee of the Avhole House, Mr. Clay attacked, 
with all his powers of argument, wit, and raillery, the interdic- 
tion in the message. He considered that the question was now 
one between the Executive, on the one hand, and the Represent- 
atives of the people on the other, and that it was so understood 
by the country ; that if, by the communication of his opinion to 
Congress, the President intended to prevent discussion, he had 
"most woefully failed ;" that in having (Mr. Clay had no doubt 
with the best motives) volunteered his opinions upon the subject, 
he had " inverted the order of legislation, by beginning where 
it should end;" and, after an able and unanswerable argu- 
ment on the question of the power, concluded by saying: "If 
we do nothing this session but pass an abstract resolution on the 
subject I shall, under all circumstances, consider it a triumph for 
the best interests of the country, of which posterity will, if we 
do not, reap the benefit." And the abstract resolution did pass, 
by a vote of ninety to seventy-five ; and a triumph it was which 
Mr. Clay had every right to consider as his own, and all the 
more grateful to his feelings, because he had hardly hoped for it. 

Referring to the final success, at a distance of thirty-five 
years, of the principle thus established, in the recent passage 
by Congress of the act for the improvement of certain of the 
ports and harbors and navigable rivers of the country, let "Pos- 
terity" not forget, on this occasion, to what honored name is 
xindoubtedly due the credit of the first legislative assertion of 
the power. 

Mr. Clay was, perhaps, the only man since Washington who 
could have said, with entire truth, as he did, "/ had rather be 
right than be President." Honor and Patriotism were his great 
and distinguishing traits. The first had its spring and support 
in his fearless spirit; the second, in his peculiar Americanism 
of sentiment. It was those two principles Avhich ever tb->"ew his 



428 EULOGY OF MR. CKITTENDEN. 

whole soul into every contest where the public interest was 
deeply involved, and, above all, into every question which in 
the least menaced the integrity of the Union. This last was, 
with him, the ark of the covenant; and he was ever as ready to 
peril his own life in its defense, as he was to pronounce the 
doom of a traitor on any one who would dare to touch it with 
hostile hands. It was the ardor of this devotion to his country, 
and to the sheet-anchor of its i''">erty and safety, the Union of 
the States, that rendered him so conspicuous in every conflict 
that threatened either one or the other with harm. All are fa- 
miliar with his more recent, indeed his last great sti'uggle for his 
country, when the foundation of the Union trembled under the 
fierce sectional agitation, so happily adjusted and pacified by the 
wise measures of compromise which he proposed in the Senate, 
and which were, in the end, in substance adopted. That bril- 
liant epoch in his history is fresh in the memory of all who hear 
me, and will never be forgotten by them. An equally glorious 
success achieved by his patriotism, his resoluteness, and the 
great power of his oratory, was one which few of this assembly 
are old enough vividly to remember, but which, in the memory 
of those who witnessed the effort, and the success of that great- 
est triumph of his master spirit, will ever live the most interest- 
ino- in the life of the o-reat statesman. I mean the Missouri 
controvers3^ Then, indeed, did common courage quail, and 
hope seem to shrink before the storm that burst upon and threat- 
ened to overwhelm the Union. 

Into the history of what is still familiarly known as the "Mis- 
souri question," it is not necessary, if time would allow, that I 
should enter at any length. The subject of the controversy, as 
all my hearers know, was the disposition of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, manifested on more than one occasion, and by 
repeated votes, to require, as a condition of the admission of the 
Territory of Missouri into the Union as a State, the perpetual 
proliibition of the introduction of slavery into the Territories of 
the United States west of the Mississippi. During the conflict 
to which this proposition gave rise in 1820, the debates were 
from the beginning earnest, prolonged, and excited. In the 



EULOGY OF MK, CKITTENDEN. 429 

earlier stages of ihem Mr. Clay exerted, to the utmost, his 
powers of argument, conciliation, and persuasion, speaking on 
one occasion, it is stated, foi' four and a half houis without in- 
termission. A bill finally passed both Houses, authorizing the 
people of the Territory of Missouri to form a Constitution of 
State Government, with the prohibition of slavery restricted to 
the territory lying north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes of 
north latitude. 

This was in the first session of the sixteenth Congress, Mr. 
Clay still being Speaker of the House. On the approach of 
the second session of this Congress, Mr. Clay being compelled 
by his private affairs to remain at home, forwarded his resigna- 
tion as Speaker, but retained his seat as a member, in view of 
the pendency of this question. Mr. Taylor of New York, the 
zealous advocate of the prohibition of slavery in Missouri and 
elsewhere in the West, was chosen Speaker to succeed Mr. 
Clay. This fact, of itself, under all the circumstances, was 
ominous of what was to follow. Alarmed, apparently, at this 
aspect of things, Mr. Clay resumed his seat in the House on 
the 16Lh of January, 1821. The Constitution formed by Mis- 
souri and transmitted to Congress, under the authority of the 
act passed in the preceding session, contained a provision (su- 
perfluous even for its own object) making it the duty of the 
General Assembly, as soon as might be, to pass an act to pre- 
vent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to, or settling in, 
the State of Missouri, "upon any pretext whatever." The re- 
ception of the Constitution, with this ofiensive provision in it, 
was the signal of discord, apparently irreconcilable ; when, just 
as it had risen to its bight, Mr. Clay, on the 16th of January, 
1821, resumed his seat in the House of Representatives. Less 
than six weeks of the term of Congress then remained. The 
great hold which he had upon the affections, as well as the re- 
spect, of all parties, induced upon his arrival a momentary lull 
in the tempest. He at once engaged earnestly and solicitously 
in counsel with all parties in this alarming controversy, and, on 
the second of February, moved the appointment of a committee 
of thirteen members to consider the subject. The report of that 



4:3tJ EULOGY OF Mli. CRITTENDEN. 

committee, after four clays of conference, in which the feelings 
of all parties had clearlj^ been consulted, notwithstanding it was 
most earnestly supported by Mr. Clay in a speech of such 
power and pathos as to draw tears from many hearers, was re- 
jected by a vote of eighty-three nays to eighty yeas. No one, 
not a witness, can conceive the intense excitement which existed 
at this moment within and without the walls of Congress, aggra- 
vated as it was by the arrival of the day for counting the elec- 
toral votes for Piesident and Vice President, among which was 
tendered the vote of Missouri as a State, though not yet admitted 
as such. Her vote was disposed of by being counted hypothet- 
ically — that is to say, that with the vote of Missoui'i, the then 
state of the general vote would be so and so ; without it, so and 
so. If her vote, admitted, would have changed the result, no 
one can pretend to say how disastrous the consequences might 
not have been. 

On Mr. Clay alone now rested the hopes of all rational and 
dispassionate men for a final adjustment of this question ; and 
one week only, with three days of grace, remained of the exist- 
ence of that Congress. On the twenty-second of the month, 
Mr. Clay made a last effort, by moving the appointment of a 
Joint Committee of the two Houses, to consider and report 
whether it was expedient or not to make provision for the admis- 
sion of Missouri into the Union, on tlie same footing of the 
oi'iginal States ; and if not, whether any other provision, adap- 
ted to her actual condition, ought to be made by law. The 
motion was agreed to, and a committee of twenty-three members 
appointed by ballot under it. The report by that committee (a 
modification of the previously rejected report) was ratified by the 
House, but by the close vote, eighty-seven to eighty-one. The 
Senate concurred, and so this distracting question was at last 
settled, with an acquiescence in it by all parties, which has 
never been since disturbed. 

I have already spoken of this as the great triumph of Mr, 
Clay; I might have said, the greatest civil triumph ever 
achieved by mortal man. It was one toward which the com- 
bination of the hifrhest ability, and the most commfinding elo- 



I 



EULOGY OF MR. CRITTENDEN. 431 

quence, would have labored in vain. There would still have 
been wanting the ardor, the vehemence, the impetuousness of 
character of Henry Clay, under the influence of which he 
sometimes overleaped all barriers, and carried his point literally 
by storm. One incident of this kind is well remembered in 
connection with the Missouri question. It was in an evening 
sitting, while this question was yet in suspense, Mr. Clay had 
made a motion to allow one or two members to vote who had 
been absent when their names were called. The Speaker (Mr. 
Taylor), who, to a naturally equable temperament, added a most 
provoking calmness of manner when all around him was excite- 
ment, blandly stated, for the information of the gentleman, that 
the motion " was not in order." Mr. Clay then moved to sus- 
pend the rule forbidding it, so as to allow him to make the 
motion ; but the Speaker, with imperturbable serenity, informed 
him that, according to the Rules and Orders, such a motion 
could not be received without the unanimous consent of the 
House. '■'■Then,'" said Mr. Clay, exerting his voice even beyond 
its highest wont, "I move to suspend all the rules of the House. 
Away with them ! Is it to be endured that we shall be tram- 
meled in our action by mere forms and technicalities at a mo- 
ment like this, when the peace, and perhaps the existence, of 
this Union is at stake?" 

Besides those to which I have alluded, Mr. Clay performed 
many other signal public services, any one of which would 
have illustrated the character of any other American statesman. 
Amono- these we can not refrain from mentionina: his measures 
for the protection of American Industry, and his compromise 
measures of 183.3, by which the country was relieved from the 
dangers and agitations produced by the doctrine and spirit of 
"nullification." Indeed his name is identified with all the o-reat 
measures of Government during the long period of his public 
life. 

But the occasion does not permit me to proceed further with 
the review of his public services. History will record them to 
his honor. 

Henry Clay was indebted to no adventitious circumstances 



i 



4:32 EULOGY OF MK. CRITrENDEN. 

for the success and glory of his life. Sprung from an humble 
stock, he "was fashioned to much honor from his cradle;" and 
he achieved it by the noble use of the means which God and 
nature had given him. He was no scholar, and had none of the 
advaniages of collegiate education. But there was a " divinity 
that stirred within him." He was a man of genius mighty 
enough to supply all the defects of education. By its keen, 
penetiating observation, its quick apprehension, its comprehen- 
sive and clear conception, he gathered knowledge without the 
study of books ; he could draw it from the fountain-head, pure 
and undehled. It was unborrowed — the acquisition of his own 
observation, reflection, and experience, and all his own. It en- 
tered into the composition of the man, forming part of his mind, 
and strengthening and preparing him for all those great scenes 
of intellectual exertion or controversy in which his life was spent. 
His armor was always on, and he was ever ready for the battle. 

This mighty genius was accompanied, in him, by all the qual- 
ities necessary to sustain its action, and to make it irresistible. 
His person was tall, and commanding, and his demeanor — 

" Lofty and sour to them that loved him act ; 
But to those men that sought him, sweet as summer." 

He was direct and honest, ardent and fearless, prompt to form 
his opinions, always bold in their avowal, and sometimes im- 
petuous, or even rash, in their vindication. In the performance 
of his duties he feared no responsibility. He scorned all evasion 
or untruth. No pale thoughts ever troubled his decisive mind. 
"Be just and fear not," was the sentiment of his heart, and the 
principle of his action. It regulated his conduct in private and 
public life ; all the ends he aimed at were his country's, his 
God's, and truth's. 

Such was Henry Clay, and such were his talents, qualities, 
and objects. Nothing but success and honor could attend such 
a character. I have adverted briefly to some portions of his 
public life. For nearly half a century he was an informing 
spirit, a brilliant and heroic figure in our political sphere, mar- 
shaling our country in the way she ought to go. The "bright 



EOLOGY OF MK. OKITTEKDEN. 433 

track of bis fiery car" may be traced through the whole space 
over which, in his day, his country and its Government have 
passed in the way to greatness and renown. It will still point 
the way to further greatness and renown. 

The great objects of his public life were to preserve and 
strenfrthen the Union : to maintain the Constitution and laws of 
the United States ; to cherish industry ; to protect labor ; and 
facilitate, by all proper national improvements, the communica- 
tion between all parts of our Avidely extended country. This 
was his American system of policy. With inflexible patriotism 
he pursued and advocated it to his end. He was every inch an 
American. His heart and all that there was of him, were de- 
voted to his country, to its liberty, and its free institutions. He 
inherited the spirit of the revolution, in the midst of which he 
was born ; and the love of liberty and the pride of freedom were 
in him principles of action. 

A remarkable trait in his character was his inflexibility in de- 
fending the public interest against all schemes for its detriment. 
His exertions were, indeed, so steadily employed and so often 
successful in protecting the public against the injurious designs 
of visionary politicians or party demagogues, that he may be 
almost said to have been, during forty years, the guardian angel 
of the country. He never would compromise the public interest 
for any body, or for any personal advantage to himself. 

He was the advocate of liberty throughout the world, and his 
voice of cheering was raised in behalf of every people who 
struggled for freedom. Greece, awakened from a long sleep of 
servitude, heard his voice, and was reminded of her own De- 
mosthenes. South America, too, in her struggle for indepen- 
dence, heard his brave words of encouragement, and her fainting 
heart was animated, and her arm made strong. 

Henry Clat was the fair representative of the age in which 
he lived ; an age which forms the great and brightest era in the 
history of man ; an age teeming with new discoveries and de- 
velopments, extending in all directions the limits of human 
knowledge, exploring the agencies and elements of the physical 

world, and turning and subjugating them to the use of man ; 
37 



434 EULOGY OF ISIK. CRITTENDEN. 

unfolding and establishing practically the great principles of 
popular rights and free governments, and which, nothing doubt- 
ing, nothing fearing, still advances in majesty, aspiring to and 
demanding further improvement and further amelioration of the 
condition of mankind. 

With the chivalrous and benignant spiiit of this great era 
Hexry Clay was thoroughly imbued. He was, indeed, molded 
by it, and made in its own image. That spirit, be it remem- 
bered, was not one of licentiousness, or turbulence, or blind in- 
novation. It was a wise spirit, good and honest as it was resolute 
and brave ; and truth and justice were its companions and 
guides. 

These noble qualities of truth and justice were conspicuous 
in the whole public life of Mr. Clay. On that solid foundation 
he stood, erect and fearless ; and when the storms of State beat 
around and threatened to overwhelm him, his exclamation was 
still heard, "truth is mighty and public justice certain." What 
a magnificent and heroic figure does Henry Clay here present 
to the world ! We can but stand before and look upon it in 
silent reverence. His appeal was not in vain ; the passion of 
party subsided ; truth and justice resumed their sway, and his 
generous countrymen repaid him, for all the wrong they had 
done, with gratitude, affection, and admiration in his life, and 
with tears for his death. 

It has been objected to Henry Clat that he was ambitious. 
So he was. But in him ambition was a virtue. It sought only 
the proper, fair objects of honorable ambition, and it sough* 
these by honorable means only — by so serving the country as to 
deserve its favors and its honors. If he sought oflBce, it was for 
the purpose of enabling him, by the power it would give, to 
serve his country more eflectually and pre-eminently ; and, if 
he expected and desired thereby to advance his own fame, who 
will say that was a fault ? Who will say that it was a fault to 
seek and to desire office for any of the personal gratifications it 
may afford, so long as those gratifications are made subordinate 
to the public good ? 

That Hknry Clay's object in desiring office was to serve his 



EULOGY OF MR. CRITTENDEN. 435 

country, and that he woulJ have made all other considerations 
subservient, I have no dtaibt. 1 knew him well ; I had full op- 
portunii}' of observing him in his most unguarded moments and 
conversations, and I can say that I have never known a more un- 
selfish, a more faithful or intrepid representative of (he people, 
of the people's rights, and the people's interests than Henry 
Clay. It was most fortunate for Kentucky to have such a repre- 
seiuaiive, and most fortunate for Ijim to have such a constituent 
as Kentucky — fortunate for him to have been thrown, in the 
eaily and susceptible period of his life, into the primitive society 
of her bold and free people. As one of her children, I am 
pleased to think that from that source he derived some of the 
magnanimity and energy which his after life so signally dis- 
played. I am pleased to think that, mingling with all his great 
qualities, there was a sort of Kentucky ism (I shall not undertake 
to define it), which, though it may not have polished or refined, 
gave to them additional point and power, and a freer scope of 
action. 

Mr. Clay was a man of profound judgment and strong will. 
He never doubted or faltered ; all his qualities were positive and 
peremptory ; and to his convictions of public duty he sacrificed 
every personal consideration. 

With but little knowledge of the rules of logic or of rhetoric, 
he was a great debater and orator. There was no art in his elo- 
quence, no studied contrivances of language. It was the natural 
outpouring of a great and ardent intellect. In his speeches 
there were none of the trifles of mere fancy and imagination ; all 
was to the subject in hand, and to the purpose ; and they may 
be regarded as great actions of the mind rather than fine displays 
of words. I doubt whether the eloquence of Demosthenes or 
Cicero ever exercised a greater influence over the minds and pas- 
sions of the people of Athens and of Rome than did Mr. Clay's 
over the minds and passions of the people of the United States. 

You all knew Mr. Clay ; your knowledge and recollection of 
him will present him more vividly to your minds than any pic- 
ture I can draw of him. This I will add : he was in the 
highest, truest sense of the term, a great man, and we ne'er shall 



436 EULOGY OF Mli. CKITTENDEN, 

look upon his like again. He has gone to join the mighty 
dead in another and better Avorld. Hoav little is there of such a 
man that can die ! His fame, the memory of his benefactions, 
the lessons of his wisdom, all remain with us ; over these death 
has no power. 

How few of the great of this world have been so fortunate as 
he ! How few of them have lived to see their labors so re- 
warded. He lived to see the country that he loved and served 
advanced to great prosperity and renown, and still advancing. 
He lived till every prejudice which, at any period of his life, 
had existed airainst him was removed ; and until he had become 
the object of the reverence, gratitude, and love of his whole 
country. His work seemed then to be completed, and fate could 
not have selected a happier moment to remove him from the 
troubles and vicissitudes of his life. 

Glorious as his life was, there was nothing that became him 
like the leaving of it. I saw him frequently during the slow 
and lingering disease which terminated his life. He w^as con- 
scious of his approaching end, and prepared to meet it with all 
the resignation and fortitude of a Christian hero. He was all 
patience, meekness, and gentleness ; these shone around him like 
a mild, celestial light, breaking upon him from another world. 

" And, to add greater honors to his age 
Than man could give, he died fearing God." 



THE 

LIFE AND CHARACTER 

OF 

HENRY CLAY. 

AN ORATION DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF MONTGOMERY, 
ALABAMA, EY HENRY W. HILLIARD, SEPTEMBER, 1852. 



Pericles, in liis oration over those Athenians wlio had first 
fallen in the Peloponnesian war, declared it to be a debt of justice 
to pay superior honors to men who had devoted their lives in 
fighting for their country. 

What honoi's, then, are due to one who devoted his whole lifa 
to the service of his country ; who did not reserve his heroism 
for a single impetuous act of self-sacrifice, but who, in his early 
manhood, consecrated himself to the Republic ; who, throughout 
a long career, was identified with its glory ; whose declining 
days were irradiated with a sunset glow of patriotism ; and whose 
heart flamed, up to the last moment of his earthly existence, with 
the great passion of his life ? It becomes us to bring our noblest 
offerings to him who thrice saved the Republic ; who rose above 
a horizon yet glowing with the expiring lights of the Revolution, 
and for half a century shed the splendor of a great intellect upon 
our hemisphere ; who, belonging to our times, is regarded with 
the veneration which we are accustomed to pay to the illustrious 
men who laid the foundations of the government ; and who, 
though so lately a living actor in the scenes of public life, is 
already sent to liisluiy with an imperishable crown upon his 
brow ( ■*■■=' 5 



438 EULOGY OF MR. HILLIAKD. 

It is a noble faculiy of our nafure which prompts our homage 
to i/Ttr-atiifSs. We recoitnize in those who liave loiled in tlie 
cause of humaniiy the qualities which assimilate man to the 
Deiiy, — which seem to lessen the distance between the tiniie and 
the infinite. They appeal to that profound love for the good and 
the beautiful which lies hidden in every human heart. 

Hero worship is not a development of modern society, Tlie 
benefactors of their race, in ancient limes, passed away fi'om the 
earth to take their places among the stars, and were elevated to 
the circle of the gods ; and in this time of ours, ruled as the 
world is by the commercial spirit, — prone as it is to gold-seeking 
and all forms of materialism, the heart of this nation beats with 
generous emotion when a true man appeals to it in tones of real 
earnestness, or performs some heroic exploit, or falls in the service 
of the State. 

No man of our times has ruled the heart of the nation with a 
more potent or resistless sway than the great statesman to whose 
memory we are assembled this day to pay the last honors. 

For nearly half a century, the name of Henry Clay has been 
associated with the eventful and glorious history of our country; 
and 1 could not pay a nobler tribute to his genius and his patri- 
otism than to enumerate the great measures which he either 
originated, or of which he was the most ardent and powerful 
advocate. It was the boast of Augustus that he found Rome 
of brick and left it of marble. Mr. Clay might, in the closing 
days of his life, have lifted his illustrious head to a prouder 
survey than an imperial city converted from brick into marble ; 
he might have swept the broad horizon of his country with an 
undimmed eye, and have claimed her wealth, her industry, her 
enterprise, her power, her glory, all that constitutes the pride of 
independent America, with the Mississippi sending its mighty 
tide to the sea free from foreign sway, with ships which bear 
the flacr of freedom to the remotest waters of the earth, with a 
government stretching its power without check over a continent, 
and planting its triumphant eagles upon the shores of the two 
great oceans of the world, — he might have claimed all this, in a 
large sense, as the work of his hands, and looked upon it as 



EULOGY OF MR. IIILLIARD, 439 

emblazoning his fame forever. To his labors we are indebted 
for the freedom of the seas, for a treaty with Great Britain which 
left us in undisputed possession of our own waters, for the suc- 
cess of manufacturers, for the great works of internal improve- 
ment, and, above all, for that Union which to-day exists in the 
full pride of its power and its glory. 

Cicero, when about to speak to Pompey, congratulated him- 
self that he had a theme so crowded with glorious associations 
that he could not fail to interest his audience, for the exploits of 
the great Roman tianscended those of the proudest names in 
imperial history, and conferred increased splendor upon the 
Republic. Let this be my inspiration to-day ; let me take cour- 
age, as I look over this great multitude, in the reflection that, 
although I am not to speak of a militaiy chieftain, the recital of 
whose great deeds in arms would rouse the hearts of all men, 
yet I am to speak of one who reached a still loftier eminence 
than can be attained in the field of battle; whose majestic char- 
acter lifts its summit to the heavens in the clear light of peace; 
whose hand was raised to bless, and not to destroy ; whose 
name, for years past, has never been uttered in assemblies of the 
people without calling out shouts of enthusiasm ; and whose 
renown is bounded only by the limits of the civilized world. I 
am to speak of Henry Clay. 

It is not possible, perhaps, to speak of so recent a career with- 
out catching something of the spirit of the times ; and it may be 
that the simple language of truth will arouse passions which 
have not yet settled down into that calm which Time spreads 
alike over the convulsions of nature and of Slates. But I must 
be allowed to speak of the character of the great statesman with 
freedom, and to portray the events which called aut his powers, 
and over which he exerted an influence so potential, with the 
fidelity which should distinguish the pages of history, whether 
the record be made before the actors have sunk out of the view 
of the living generation, or whether it be traced by one who looks 
across the cold atmosphere of intervening years at the scenes 
which he desciibes. Surrounded as I am by Americans, who 
assemble here, irrespective of party differences, to bring a garland 



440 EULOGY OF MR. HILLIARD. 

for the tomb of an illustrious patriot, I shall seek to treat Mr 
Clay's acts, opinions, and merits as those of an American in 
whose fame we all have now a common interest. 

Mr. Clay was born in Hanover county, Yirginia, on the 12th 
of April, 1777. 

He was fortunate both in the time and place of his birth. His 
youth was passed among- men who had taken part in the strug- 
gles of the revolution, and who, after the storm had gone by, 
were engaged under the serene heavens in laying the foundations 
of a free government. 

In Viiginia, that renowned Commonwealth which has nour- 
ished at her generous bosom so many illustrious sons, who, 
deriving their existence from a noble lineage, were among the 
first to defy the power of Great Britain, — in Virginia, within 
whose limits the last great battle of the revolution was fought, 
and where so many statesmen arose who shared the perils of 
that great contest, and who, after achieving the independence 
of the country, had established the Republic, — there Mr. Clay 
formed the opinions and adopted the principles which governed 
his whole life. He grew up under the training of Edmund 
Pendleton, John Marshall, Bushrod Washino-ton, and other 
eminent men who were engaged in public affairs, and with 
whom a young man of ardent and high aspirations could not 
associate without having his mind liberalized and his nature 
ennobled. No circumstance can be more fortunate for one who 
is to take part in the great affairs of life than the privilege of 
seeing and hearing, in his youth, illustrious men, — a privilege 
which often does more for the development of genius and the 
elevation of character than the most riarid training of the schools. 
Cicero traveled to Rhodes that he mis^ht be instructed in the 
celebrated school of eloquence established there by ^schines, 
and we have the immortal orations which he delivered in the 
forum and in the Senate chamber. 

Henry Clay, desiitute of the gifts of fortune, of the means 
of foreign travel, of the advantages of a collegiate course, stood 
in the presence of Patrick Henry, and, while he heard the 
thunder of liis eloquence, lie caught an inspiration as fortunate 



I 



EULOGY OF MR. IIILLIARD. 441 

as that which the Roman senator found in his yoiith. Who can 
say how far the whole career of Mr. Clay was influenced by 
that early and eager listening to the voice of Patrick Henry ? 
Did not the mighty energies of that resistless orator find an echo 
ill the bosom of the obscure youth who stood up to hear his 
trumpet tones ? The same generous fire, the same clarion voice, 
the same rushing, impetuous power of intellect belonged to both. 
The same spirit of patriotic fervor which animated the Demos- 
thenes of Virginia flamed up in Henry Clay with equal ardor 
and brilliancy. 

It is worth while, for the sake of a cheering principle which 
the fact contains, to say that the early life of Mr. Clay was one 
of toil ; ill the fields, or wherever else the wants of his mother's 
family required, he labored; and the hand which, in the prime 
of manhood, directed the movements of the Government, had 
guided tlie plow as it turned up the soil to receive the seed. 
At fifteen, he entered the office of Mr. Tinsley, of Richmond, 
who was connected with the Court of Chancery, and there he 
attracted the attention of Chancellor Wythe, who employed him 
as an amanuensis, directed his studies, introduced him to authors 
of solid worth, and opened his mind to receive the generous 
influence of classical learning. 

" There upon his opening soul 
First the genial ardor stole." 

At twenty, in the true spirit of self-reliance, he left Virginia, 
and establislied himself in Lexington Kentucky. The friendless 
youth took his place at the bar, and, relying upon his intellect, 
his energy, his industry, his honest purpose to do his duty, he 
established his claim to consideration in the midst of full-grown 
men already eminent. 

Without a large acquaintance with law books, or an extensive 
survey of the broad foundations of the system of jurisprudence 
inherited from England, Mr. Clay had applied his mind to a 
philosophical investigation of its leading principles. These he 
had graspsd with a mind singularly clear, rapid, and compre- 
hensive ; and with an energy quite indomilable, and a fliithful 



44:2 EULOGY OF MR. HILLIAKU. 

consecration of himself to every task which he undertook, he 
coniinued to lank through life as a lawyer in the highest and 
best sense, and to win triumphs at the bar which many men 
of more research, with inferior abilities, would in vain have 
attempted. 

He was not destined to continue at the bar. He entered early 
into the service of his country, and it is his political career 
which we are to review, — a review of which it is not too much 
to say that it was the most splendid ever witnessed among the 
statesmen of this country. Rising rapidly to the highest heavens, 
he flooded the country with his liglit through a long day, and 
when he sank toward the horizon which touches eternity, he 
threw the milder beams of his majestic intellect over the Republic 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Clav's first appear- 
ance in Congress was as a senator from the Siate of Kentucky, a 
post which he held but for a short time. He was elected to the 
House of Repiesentatives, and took his seat in the Congress 
which was convened by the President's proclamation in Novem- 
ber, 1811, when the aspect of our foreign relations was threat- 
ening. He was instantly chosen Speaker, by an overwhelming 
majority. A higher proof of confidence in his abilities and 
character, or a nobler tribute to his patriotism, could not have 
been accorded ; nor has any parliamentary body, in any country, 
ever brought to its service a presiding officer more richly en- 
dowed with those great qualities, so rarely found blended in a 
single individual, which are required in one who rules the 
deliberations of a free popular assembly. Prompt, firm, and 
decided, he impressed the House with a profound respect for 
his authority, while the manliness, frankness, and elegance of 
his manners secured to him the sincere good-will of the body, 
even in the midst of the most momentous and exciting debates. 

He continued to preside over the House throughout his pro- 
tracted service as a representative. 

Passing through the most eventful times, he continued firmly 
seated in the Speaker's chair, and exerted over the delibera- 
tions of that great popular body almost unlimited control. The 
House of Representatives, created by tlie people, — exhibitino- 



EULOGY OF MK. HILLIARD. 44:3 

the popular sympathies, — swayed by the tempests which sweep 
over the eoiiniiy, — atfording, from its lai'ge number of members, 
opportunities for the powerful appeals of oiatory, — the seat of 
the nation's strength, where every tax bill must originate, and 
where the quick indignation excited by any assertion upon the 
rights or honor of the country may at once flame up into a 
declaration of war, was the proper theater for the display of 
M[ Clat's transcendent, abilities. The Senate is a smaller 
b( dy, embodying the conservative elements of the Government, 
removed from the direct uifluence of the people, and so consti- 
tuted as to withstand the surges of popular passions which some- 
times thunder against its portals. 

In the House Mr. Clay acquired a commanding influence over 
the country. He became the popular leader, animating the 
Republican ranks to heroic exertions, denouncing in vehement 
and indignant terms all opposition to the measures of the admin- 
istrations which he sustained, and on some occasions bearing 
away not only the House, but the Senate and the Executive, by 
his resistless will. 

His great strength was with the people. His heart beat in 
sympathy with their hearts; they comprehended him; they 
loved him ; they put their trust in him ; and the pealing notes 
of his voice, uttered in the Capitol, found an echo in the remotest 
border of the American wilderness. He acquired the name of 
the "Great Commoner," a prouder title than kings can bestow 
with stars, or garters, or ribbons. 

Henry Brougham, when in the House of Commons, was the 
most powerful man in the British empire. The civilized world 
rano- with his tones. No administration, backed as it might be 
by the powers of the crown, could stand before his assaults; 
but from the day when he took his seat in the House of Lords, 
and became a titled peer, his sway began to decline, and the 
consideration which he now enjoys is due to the splendid fame 
which he won as a representative of the people. Pitt, the 
vouno-er, never would surrender his seat in the Commons, which 
was to him a throne more powerful than that upon which hia 
monarch sat. 



44:4 EULOGY OF Mli. IIILLIAED. 

Mr. Clay, if lie had continued in the House of Representa- 
tives, refusing to abandon that post for any office to which he 
was not called by the people, could have strode with the majesty 
of a demigod into the Presidency of the United States. In the 
Senate he was still powerful, the leading mind in that body when 
it was crowded with men of the highest order, great in intellect, 
splendid in reputation ; it rivaled the Roman Senate in dignity, 
and transcended it in power. In that body he was great as 
Lord Chatham was in the House of Lords ; he could not be 
otherwise than great ; but the day of his full-orbed splendor was 
when he stood in the House of Representatives, a tribune of the 
people. Refulgent he stood in the view of his country, full of 
promise, of hope, and of manhood. When Mr. Clay entered 
the House of Representatives, all Europe was engaged in a war 
which shook the world, and our commerce was exposed to its 
fury. It became a prey to the contending powers. England 
swept the seas with her fleets, and plundered our unprotected 
vessels, while she stripped them of such seamen as might be 
supposed to owe allegiance to the British crown. France seized 
our property wherever it could be found, and confiscated it 
under the decrees of Napoleon, who strove to range the world 
against his imperial and powerful enemy. France at length 
yielded to our remonstrances, but Great Britain persisted in a 
course of aggression which roused the spirit of the nation, and 
drove us into a war which, although costly in treasure and in 
blood, vindicated our rights, and shed new luster upon the flag 
of the Republic. Reluctant as the nation was to engage in war, 
Mr. Clay urged its policy and necessity ; he organized the com- 
mittees of ihe House so as to control its action ; he denounced 
the policy, the objects, and the measures of the British Govern- 
ment, and attributed its hostility to the United States not to any 
wish to attack the interests of France by destroying our com- 
merce, but to her dread of a young and powei'ful rival, who 
already sent her ships to every sea, manned by one hundred and 
twenty tars. He advocated an increase of the navy, for he com- 
prehended that no modern naiiun can be really independent which 
is not prepared to protect its people and its commorce iu Uie most 



EULOGY OF MR. HILLIARD. 445 

distant seas, and to cause its flag to be respected under what- 
ever sky it is displayed. The country was put into an attitude 
of resistance, and in June, 1812, the committee on foreign 
relations reported to the House a bill declaring war against 
Great Britain. 

Mr. Clay advocated its passage with resistless power ; associ- 
ated with him stood Mr. Lowndes, Mr. Calhoun, and Mr. Cheves, 
and they bore down all opposition. In the van of that group of 
statesmen Mr. Clay stood proudly eminent ; throughout the war 
he animated the country with his own spirit ; no reverses could 
dishearten, no disasters could depress him. He exultingly 
announced every victory upon the seas, and his voice announced 
wiih vehement indignation every proposition for peace which 
did not secure to us the amplest guarantees that our rights and 
our honor should be respected. 

He overwhelmed the opposition, — he fired the friends of the 
administration with his own ardor, — he inflamed the representa- 
tives of the people witli a burning indignation against the imperi- 
ous and haughty nation with whom the country was at war, by 
describing the wrong, the cruelty, and the suftering which 
resulted from the practice of impressment, until, as he advanced 
in his glowing philippic, the utter degradation of submitting to 
such a system was felt by the members of the House so intensely 
that the tide of passion could be pent up no longer; it burst 
forth before the eloquent statesman who was pleading for the 
honor and rights of the nation, and swept away all resistance to 
the war. 

Having urged the country to vindicate its rights by war, Mr. 
Clay was equally prompt and energetic in securing an honorable 
peace. He was associated with Mr. Adams, Mr. Gallatin, Mr. 
Bayard and Mr. Russell, in negotiating, at Ghent, a treaty of 
peace with the commissioners appointed on the part of Great 
Britain. The fisheries and the navigation of the Mississippi 
formed the chief difficulties in bringing the negotiation to a 
friendly issue. The British commissioners insisted upon a 
recognition in the treaty of the right of Groat Britain to navigate 
the Mississippi from its moulh to its soui'ce, — a right which liad 



446 EULOGY OF MR. HILLIAED. 

hitherto been enjoyed in consideration of the privilege granted to 
citizens of the United States to tish within the Bruisli waters, 
and to dry and cure their fish upon Briiish soih Some of the 
American commissioners thought it best to perpetuate this stipu- 
lation, bill Mr. Clay announced his unalterable determination 
" never to consent to purchase temporary and uncertain pi ivileges 
within the British limits at the expense of putting a foreign and 
degrading mark upon the noblest of all our rivers." His views 
prevailed. Mr. Clay returned to his own country with the proud 
consciousness of having placed her honor and her rights upon a 
footing which the whole world would respect. 

The success of our arms upon the land, and the brilliant 
victories achieved by our young navy over the powerful fleets 
of Great Britain upon the sea, had caused the American name 
everywhere to be respected ; and the splendid example of a 
republic formidable in war, and yet ready to adjust all causes of 
controversy with moderation and justice, was beheld by the 
civilized world with unbounded admiration. 

The treaty of peace left us in possession of every right which 
we had asserted, and which we had undertaken to vindicate by 
war ; our seamen might visit the remotest seas, and find protec- 
tion in the flag that floated over them ; our commerce was safe 
from spoliation ; and the noble river which rolls its waters 
through great States, beginning at the extreme north, and empty- 
ing into the Gulf of Mexico, was freed from foi-eign vassalage, 
and became, for the first time, American. In anticipation of 
his return, Mr. Clay had been elected to Congress by his con- 
stituents, and, entering the House of Representatives, he was 
immediately chosen Speaker, by a vote almost unanimous. The 
South American colonies, animated by the example of the 
United States, were struggling for independence. The spectacle 
could not fail to interest our people and our Government, nor 
was it possible for a statesman like Mr. Clay, with quick sym- 
pathies and enlarged philanthropy, to look on such a contest 
with indiiJe-eiice. 

He proposed to provide in the Appropriation Bill for the pay 
of a Diinister to the independent provinces of the River de la 



EULOGY OF MR. IIILLIARD, 44.7 

Plata, and supported bis motion by one of the most brilliant, 
comprehensive, and powerful speeches which he ever delivered. 
The moral grandeur of his position was never higher than on 
that occasion. He stood up to plead for the recognition of the 
independence of the South American Slates against the opinion 
of the world. Europe was, of course, opposed to the measure ; 
Congress would not consent to favor it; the President was un- 
willing to commit the Government of the United States to that 
extent ; and yet Mr. Clay arose, refulgent and undismaved, 
against this universal opposition. He spt)ke in behalf of human 
freedom, and he drew from history his illustrations in support 
of the right of every people suffering under despotic rule, to 
throw off the yoke of subjection, to create new defenses for their 
protection, or to take an independent station among the nations 
of the earth. 

England and our own country had both nobly vindicated this 
great right. It is emblazoned in characters of unfading light 
in the history both of the English and American Revolutions. 
His speech in this great cause was replete with learning and 
eloquence. It announced in exulting tones the advent of free- 
dom, and proclaimed with bounding hope the overthrow of 
despotic power. Mr. Clay succeeded in bringing our Govern- 
ment to a recognition of South American independence, and he 
was well rewarded for his generous exertions by the assurance 
that his words had infused new ardor into the bosoms of a brave 
people. His speech was read at the head of their armies, to 
excite them to still nobler struggles for liberty, and Bolivar 
addressed to him a grateful letter, acknowleging the essential 
sei-vice which he had rendered to their great cause. 

Upon certain great questions of American policy Mr. Clay 
entertained opinions which he frankly avowed throuoh life. He 
believed that Congress possessed the power to appropriate money 
for works of internal improvement, and he urged the adoption 
of a comprehensive system to facilitate intercourse between the 
people of the several States, and to bind more closely the various 
parts of one wide-spread Republic. The leading statesmen of 
our country have been divided upon this question ; it is yet a 



448 EULOGY OF MR. HILLIAKD. 

subject of debate, after all the light which has been shed upon it. 
The power was conceded by Mr. Jefferson, for he favored the 
construction of the Cumberland Road. Mr. Madison invited the 
attention of Congress to the expediency of exercising their powers 
to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals. Mr, 
Monroe proposed to make appropriation of money for like objects ; 
while Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Calhoun, when at the head of the 
War Department, the one in 1808 and the other ten years later, 
advocated extensive measures of internal improvement ; but the 
last named of these statesmen subsequently reviewed and modi- 
fied his opinions. 

Mr. Clay persevered through life impressing the subject upon 
the attention of Congress, and to him more than any other of 
our statesmen is the country indebted for such public works aa 
have been already accomplished, and for the vindication of the 
power of the Government to undertake such enterprises, — a power 
which, when guided by the spirit of the Constitution, is a most 
important and beneficent one. The Cumberland Road, conceived 
and executed in a spirit as bold as that which constructed the 
Simplon road over the Alps, opens a way across the AUeghanies, 
and spreads before the eye of the traveler a noble memorial of 
the great statesman who labored so ardently and so faithfully to 
accomplish it. 

Upon another question, which, like that of internal improve- 
ments, has ranged the public men of the country in fierce oppo- 
sition to each other, and which has more than once threatened to 
disturb the tranquillity of tlie Government, — the Tariff, — Mr. 
Clay entertained opinions which, formed early in life, were cher- 
ished throughout his career. 

He was the advocate of the system for the protection of Ameri- 
can industry. 

He thought it essential to the true prosperity and the real 
independence of the United States, that our people should pro- 
duce at home the chief articles suited to the wants of man in 
civilized life. The variety of soil and climate, — the adaptation 
of some paits of the country to agricultural productions, — the 
aptness of some uf our people to engage in commerce, — all these 



EULOGY OF MR. IIILLIAKD. 449 

natural elements would be supposed to work out their results ; 
but the skill required in the mechanic arts, the fluctuations in 
prices occasioned b}' changes in the affairs of European Slates, 
and the advantages possessed by foreign capitalists in the employ- 
ment of pauper labor, seemed to him to require some protection 
for the manufacturing interests, and he perseveringly insisted 
that certain articles imported into the country, and coming into 
opposition with our own productions, should be taxed, to enable 
the American manufacturer to compete with rival establishments 
abroad. This system lie named the American System. 

This is not the occasion to enter upon an examination of the 
merits of a system which has been so long and so fiercely de- 
bated ; but it is due to the truth of history to say, that it found 
in Mr. Clay far the ablest advocate employed in its cause, while 
his enemies acknowledged him to be the most magnanimous 
statesman that had ever conducted a great measure to which 
he was deeply committed through a long course of years and 
chanii-ino; fortunes. 

He did not hesitate to yield up, from time to time, some of his 
cherished ideas in regard to it from a patriotic desire to secure 
to the Government as large a share of confidence and satisfaction 
as could be attained amid the conflicting opinions of public men 
representing the diversified interests of the country. 

It was the good fortune of Mr. Clay to find himself more than 
once holding a controlling influence over important questions 
which tried the strength of the Government, and on every occa- 
sion he displayed qualities so noble, so magnanimous, and so full 
of the spirit which in ancient or modern times has impelled men 
to sacrifices for the good of their country, that he has long been 
ranked with patriots who shed along the track of histoiy the 
light of resplendent examples, to encourage mankind to the per- 
formance of deeds which deserve to be called heroic. 

In the controversy which sprang up upon the application of 

Missouri to be admitted into the Union as a Slate, Mr. Clat 

displayed his great qualities, and rendered the most important 

S€:rvices to the country. That controversy was far the most 

formidable which has ever occurred under our Government. 
38 



450 EULOGY OF MR. HILLIARD. 

Mr. Jefferson, looking out upon the State of the country from 
his retirement in Virginia, was startled by the alarming aspect 
of affaiis ; he declared that he regarded the question as the most 
momentous which had ever threatened the Union, and that, in 
the darkest hour of the Revolutionary struggle, he had never 
felt such apprehensions as then oppressed him. From the 
beginning to the end of that perilous agitation, Mr. Clay labored 
without ceasing to bring about an adjustment, and at length 
succeeded in carrying through both Houses of Congress a com- 
promise which saved the Union and gave repose lo the country. 
The services rendered by him on that occasion were so signal, 
that he acquired, in addition to the title of the " Great Com- 
moner," another title still more illustrious, that of the " Great 
Pacificator," — a title to which he subsequently vindicated his 
name by services still more important and splendid. Mr. Clay 
had now attained the most commanding position ; his brilliant 
talents, his important public services, his ardent patriotism, 
which, like that of the ancient Greeks, made him regard every 
thin<T as subordinate to the glory of the State ; his national 
views, which would not allow him to belong to a section of the 
Republic, had endeared him to the people, and, young as he 
was, he was presented to the country as a candidate for the 
Presidency. 

Beside Mr. Clay, Mr. Adams, General Jackson and Mr. Craw- 
ford became candidates. No choice was made by the people, 
and the election devolved upon the House of Representatives, by 
whom the Constitution provides one of the three candidates 
havino- the hio-hest number of electoral votes shall be chosen 
President in cases where no one of the persons voted for shall 
have received a majority of the whole number. The three can- 
didates hio-hest on the list were General Jackson, Mr. Adams 
and Mr. Crawford. The provision in the Constitution which 
directs the election to be made by the House of Representatives 
in the event of a failure on the part of the people to choose the 
President, and which limits the choice to the three persons 
receiving the largest vote in the electoral colleges, of course 
leaves to the House the unrestricted privilege of selecting from 



EDLOGY OF MK. IIILMAKL), 451 

the list either of the candidates ; otherwise it would be unneces- 
saiy to devolve upon the representatives of the people the dwv 
of performing a formal act, and it would have been a proviti-u 
in the fundamental law that a plurality of votes should entith- a 
candidaie to the (jffice of President. It was well known that Mr. 
Clay's influence in the House would enable him to decide ile 
contest between the ihiee persons returned to that body. It is 
believed that Mr. Crawford would have been Mr. Clat's choice 
if the splendid intellect of that statesman had not been partially 
impaired by disease; in its meridian efi'ulgence, the shadows 
of an eclipse which never passed away began to steal over it. 
Between Mr. Adams and General Jackson Mr. Clay did not 
hesitate, and decided in favor of the former. His long public 
services, his learning, his eminent qualifications, and his position 
in the country, might have accounted satisfactorily for Mr. Clay's 
preference ; but no sooner was it ascertained that he intended to 
vote for Mr. Adams, than the fiercest and most vindictive assault 
■was made upon him, and reckless partisans of General JacLsoa 
persevered in charging upon him a cori'upt bargain with the new 
President for oifice, which would have disgraced a statesman in 
the time of Walpole, when the venality of the House of Com- 
mons was proverbial. Calumny found a great name to fasten 
apon, and it adhered to it with a tenacity as shameless as it was 
malignant. That name has been triumphantly vindicated by the 
subsequent career of the great statesmen ; like the eagle soaring 
toward the sun, he rose high in the heavens, his eye blazing with 
ardor, and his wings flashing with light. 

Mr. Clay accepted the place of Secretary of State in the 
cabinet of Mr. Adams. That was his error ; it exposed him to 
detraction, and gave that color to the injurious charge of his 
enemies which, if he had declined the ofiice, it never could have 
possessed. But it was an error into which a pure and strong 
man was apt to fall. Conscious of his own integrity, he looked 
down with unmeasured scorn upon those who calumniated him. 
In this world of ours, it is, perhaps, not wise to do so ; yet who 
can withhold his sympathy from the true man who will not 
swerve from his course to escape the attacks of his enemies? In 



463 EULOGY OF MK. HILLIAKD. 

tliis rapid glance at Mr. Clay's career, we have reached the 
period when he took leave of the House of Representatives, never 
to return to it. We have already said that it was the proper field 
for the exercise of his great abilities. He had earned there a 
splendid reputation ; he had controlled the action of the Govern- 
ment by the power which he exerted over the House ; he had 
originated the most important measures of the country ; he had 
roused the nation to wage war with a haughty and powerful 
empire ; he had cheered the friends of liberty throughout the 
world by words of generous sympathy ; and he had effected a 
pacific adjustment of an angry and momentous domestic contro- 
versy which shook the Republic; and now the " Great Com- 
moner " strode through the portal of that magnificent chamber 
which had so lono- runo- with his tones, and ceased forever to be 
a Representative of the People. 

Mr. Clay, when Secretary of State, was distinguished for the 
energy and comprehensiveness which he displayed in conducting 
the intercourse of the United States with foreign nations. 

His statesmanship was of the highest order. He established 
the relations of the United States with other powers upon a foot- 
ing which gave security to commerce ; he extended to the young 
States of South Amei'ica and to Greece, when fighting for inde- 
pendence, all the aid which a sound policy would allow; he 
extended our foreign trade, and conducted the negotiations which 
accomplished these objects in a spirit so firm and just, that the 
triumphs of peace rivaled those of war. At the expiration of 
the term for which Mr. Adams was elected, Mr. Clay left Wash- 
ington and returned to Ashland. 

He soon appeared in the Senate of the United States. The 
memorable tariff dispute with South Carolina had grown to be a 
formidable and portentous one. It turned upon a great constitu- 
tional principle, and it is well known that the most dangerous of 
all disputes are those which involve a principle. Temporary 
abuses may be ridiculed ; an odious measure may be repealed ; 
the pressure of the Government may be borne when the times 
require it ; but a law which overrides a constitutional barrier will 
be resisted by a high-spirited people in a temper so heated by a 






EULOGY OF MR. HILLIAKD. 453 

sense of wrong that it sometimes flames up into a revolution. 
South Carolina, in solemn convention, passed an ordinance 
declariiio- the revenue laws of the United States to be null and 
void within her limits, and adopted decided measures for putting 
the State into an attitude of resistance to the General Government. 
General Jackson, who was at the head of the Government, issued 
a proclamation, in which he denounced the proceedings of South 
Carolina as treasonable, urged the good citizens of that State who 
were opposed to Nullification to co-operate with him in main- 
taining the supremacy of the laws, and invited those who had 
hitherto taken part in the revolutionary movement to abandon the 
perilous course upon which they had entered. He leveled his 
thunders aoainst the doctrine of Nullification and that of Seces- 
sion, denying the right of the State either to set aside a law of 
the United States, or to withdraw from the Confederacy without 
the consent of all the Slates. In a special message to Congress, 
he depicted the state of the country, and demanded to be clothed 
with power to suppress by force any attempt at resistance on the 
part of South Carolina. 

Governor Hayne issued a counter-proclamation, encouraging 
the citizens of South Carolina to a steady and heroic support of 
their State in her daring and perilous position. The sky grew 
darker every hour. The day fixed upon by South Carolina for 
resistance to the revenue laws was rapidly approaching. The 
State planted herself in the pass of Thermopylae, and her sons 
were prepared to die in her defense. 

Mr. Calhoun had resigned the office of Vice President, and 
was chosen by his State a senator in that crisis. The energy and 
resolution of his character were well known ; and entering the 
Senate when it was believed that his own person was not safe, he 
brought that intellectual power for which he was so distinguished 
into the defense of his State, and delivered in her cause far tlie 
ablest speech which he ever uttered in his whole career. His 
great antagonist was Mr. Webster, who had, in a previous debate 
with Mr. Hayne, delivered a speech in defense of the Union 
which stands unsurpassed by any oration of ancient or modern 
times. It combines the elegance of Cicero with the power of 



454 EtTLOGT OF MR. HILLIARD. 

Demosthenes, — the splendor of Burke with the vigor of Pitt. 
The Senate and the country witnessed the debate between Mr. 
Calhoun and Mr. Webster with the profoundest interest. It 
involved great organic principles, and the impending collision 
between the Government and a State gave them an intenser sig- 
nificance and a higher grandeur. At that conjuncture, when 
the light seemed to have faded from the darkening horizon, Mr. 
Clay brought forward a measure which promised to restore 
peace to the country. He offered to the Senate his Compromise 
Bill, which provided for a decided but gradual reduction of the 
duties upon imported articles up to the year 1842, at which 
period they were to be fixed at a rate of twenty per cent upon 
the home valuation, — a principle of the greatest importance in 
the revenue system. Mr. Calhoun rose in the Senate, and gave 
his reluctant consent to Mr. Clay's bill. It passed both Houses 
of Congress, after encountering determined opposition in each 
of them, and South Carolina acquiesced in the measure of recon- 
ciliation. Civil war was averted, and the Republic was saved. 
As the storm-cloud rolled away, the ship of State was seen 
riding proudly over the subsiding billows, and it was the hand 
of Mr. Clay which grasped the helm and guided it into the 
open sea. Illustrious man ! he had twice saved the Republic. 
The North gave up, and the South no longer held back. Even 
Mr. Clay's enemies were at peace with him. Mr. Randolph 
was seated in the Senate chamber, lingering upon the theater 
of his former fame, when Mr. Clay rose to speak upon the 
Compromise Bill. "Help me up," he said to his half-brother, 
Mr. Tucker, "I have come here to hear that voice." At the 
close of his speech, Mr. Clay walked to where Mr. Randolph 
was seated, and, grasping each other's hands, they lost all traces 
of their former feud. 

Mr. Clay now belonged more than ever to his country. He 
stood upon a proud eminence, and the gratitude of the people 
for his services rose to enthusiasm. His name mingled with the 
tones of patriotic exultation which hailed the adjustment of a 
controversy so portentous all over the country, and wherever he 
traveled, h^ was greeted with acclamations, and honored 'with 



EULOGY OF MR. HILLIARD. 455 

the noblest triumphal progress which ever cheered a statesman. 
He had realized the reward so exquisitely expressed in those 
lines of Gray : 

"The applause of listening Senates to command, 
The threats of pain and ruin to despise, — 
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, 
And read his history in a nation's eyes." 

Mr. Clay's views in regard to the public lands were matured 
after a thorough examination of the subject, and he succeeded 
in carrying through both Houses of Congress a bill which 
promised the best results, and which was only defeated by the 
action of the President, General Jackson, who retained it in his 
possession until after the adjournment of Congress, and it, of 
course, failed to become a law. 

Mr. Clay's views as to the currency were also well matured ; 
and it was his opinion that a national bank, in some form, was 
important, if not essential to the prosperity of the country. 
Congress agreed with him, and passed a bill for the re-charter 
of the Bank of the United States, which the President met with 
his veto. Then began the fierce contest between General Jack- 
son and the bank, — a contest which ended in the destruction of 
the bank, but which involved the country in the heaviest com- 
mercial disasters. An intense excitement pervaded Congress. 
Mr. Clay led the opposition to that memorable administration, 
and a more cotirageous or powerful leader has never appeared in 
any parliamentary body. The President, remarkable for the 
energy of his character and the strength of his will, with a per- 
sonal popularity which seemed boundless, and at the head of a 
powerful party, marshaled all his forces, and hurled them against 
the opposing ranks ; but he was confronted by a leader as full 
of couiage as himself, and whose steady soul nothing could 
intimidate, — a leader who roused the Senate to the loftiest spirit 
of resistance to Executive power, and who succeeded in spread- 
ing upon the records of that august body a resolution condemning 
the course of the President. 

On the last day of March, 1842, Mr. Clay rose to take a 
formal, and, as he supposed, a final leave of that body. The 



456 EULOGY OF MR. HILLIARD. 

chainber Tvas thronged with representatives, foreign ministers, 
and others who had ihe privilege of entering it, and the gallery 
was tilled with ladies, all eager to hear once more the tones of 
a voice unrivaled in its richness and power, and to witness a 
scene which was to be an epoch in the annals of the country. 
Il has been immortalized, not only by being spread upon the 
])ages which record the history of the times, but the pencil of 
the painter has sketched the scene with lifelike iideliiy. In look- 
ing upon the picture, the great scenes of English history rush 
upon the mind, and the event is associated with the last speech 
of the Earl of Chatham in the House of Lords. The speech, 
full of dignity and pathos, moved the Senate to tears. As the 
last words were uttered, "And noAv, Mr. President and sena- 
tors, I bid you all a long, a lasting, and a friendly farewell," he 
resumed his seat amid a stillness as unbroken as if the living 
mass which thronged the Senate chamber had been the ideal 
creation of a painter. After an interval, Mr. Preston, of South 
Carolina, moved that the Senate adjourn without proceeding to 
ary business, and it did so. Mr. Clay stepped into the area, 
when a senator, who, like himself, had earned an imperishable 
fame in the service of his country, but between whom and the 
great statesman who had just taken leave of the Senate an 
estrangement had giown up in trying and stormy times, ap- 
proached him. It was Mr. Calhoun. Their intercourse had 
been interrupted for five years, but now they grasped each 
other's hands and exchanged salutations which were prompted 
by their great hearts. 

Early in the spring of 1844, Mr. Clay made an extensive tour 
throuoh the Southern States. It was well known that he was to 
be the Whig candidate for the Presidency, yet his opinions upon 
all political questions which interested the country were expressed 
with perfect unreserve. It became known that a negotiation was 
in progress for the annexation of Texas to the United States, and 
Mr. Clay, without hesitation, announced his decided opposition 
to the scheme. He addressed a letter to the people, depicting in 
strong terms the dangers which surrounded the question ; for 
his was a nature too honest and too proud to conceal any opinion 



EULOGY OP MK. IIILLIAKD. 457 

for the sake of acquiring power. Texas was in a revolutionary 
stale ; her independence had not been acknowledged by Mexico, 
and Mr. Clay declared his unconquerable opposition to any plan 
of annexation which did not embrace that republic as a party. 
With a full knowledge of his opinions, he was nominated by the 
Whigs for the Presidency with an enthusiasm which promised 
a brilliant victory. For some months it seemed to the American 
people that Mr. Clay would be elected by acclamation. His 
splendid reputation, his illustrious public services, his acknowl- 
edoed ability and experience as a statesman, the popular confi- 
dence which he enjoyed so largely, all seemed to render his 
success certain ; but, as the canvass advanced, it was perceived 
that his opinions in regard to Texas alienated friends, and ren- 
dered doubtful a contest which had opened for him so auspi- 
ciously. Mr. Van Buren, who had been looked to as the opposing 
candidate, had been set aside by the Democratic Convention on 
account of his declared opposition to the annexation of Texas, 
and Mr. Polk, an ardent friend of the measure, received the 
nomination. The result is well known. The canvass turned 
upon the Texas question ; the popular feeling in favor of the 
measure rose so high as to surmount every other consideration, 
and Mr. Clay, with his brilliant personal qualities and his great 
public services, failed to reach the Presidency. Coriolanus was 
refused the consulship of the people, though his scars had for a 
time influenced them in his favor. 

Mr. Clay re-entered the Senate on the third day of December, 
1849, and was welcomed to a seat in that body by the assembled 
senators from every State, and by the voice of the American 
people. The state of the country induced him to return to a seat 
which he had relinquished, as he supposed, forever. The results 
cf the annexation of Texas, which he had so clearly foreseen, 
and against which he had warned the country, had occurred, 
and he came, in the midst of the dangers which surrounded the 
Republic, to rescue and to save it, or to perish with it. 

The war with Mexico had been brought to a close by a treaty 

which left us in possession of new and extensive Territories. 

Portentous questions grew out of the splendid acquisition- 
3.9 



458 EDLOGY OF ME. HILLIARD. 

The discovery of exhaustless beds of gold in California at- 
tracted thousands to its distant shores, and a bold, intelligent, 
and spirited people, finding themselves on the coast of the Pacific 
without a regular government, organized a State, and applied to 
be admitted into the Union. Territorial governments were de- 
manded for the protection of the people spreading over the vast 
reo-ions now known as New Mexico and Utah. Texas insisted 
ipon the recognition of her boundaries, stretching to the Rio 
Grande del Norte, and running far into New Mexico. To com- 
plicate these great subjects of legislation still further, an alarming 
question, which has more than once threatened the disruption of 
the Government, sprang up, — the question of Slavery. The 
people of California had, by their Constitution, prohibited the 
introduction of slaves within the limits of the large State carved 
out of the new Territory, and it was proposed to prohibit their 
introduction into the Territories of New Mexico and Utah by 
an act of Congress. The anti-slavery sentiment of the country 
was roused into new activity by these momentous questions, 
and it became more imperious and exacting in its demands. It 
announced that the limits of Slavery were forever fixed. As if 
these disturbing elements were insufficient to agitate the country 
and endanger the Government, they were inflamed yet more by 
an attempt to confine Texas within narrower limits than those to 
which that young and gallant State was entitled, — even leaving 
out of view her claim upon the magnanimity of the United 
States, — and to bring about a collision between her people and 
the troops of the General Government by precipitating a decision 
adverse to her claims. 

The convulsion that shook the country while Congress was 
engaged in settling these momentous questions is too recent to 
make it necessary to describe it. The ocean, when it has been 
swept by a tempest, even when the skies have cleared up, con- 
tinues to heave its billows and to send its surges against the 
resounding shore, and we find ourselves yet in the midst of 
political events which remind us of the strength and fury of the 
storm with which the country was so lately visited. But we 
to-day send up, from hearts glowing with gratitude, oui- fervent 



EULOGY OF MR. IIILLIARD. 459 

thanks to Almighty God that the heavens are cloudless ; that the 
Republic covers with ils protecting eagles kindred States touch- 
ing on the one side the Atlantic and on the other the Pacific 
waters, and that its great standard, hailed all over the world as 
the banner of freedom, still displays upon its ample folds the 
gorgeous emblem of the Union which constitutes us one people. 
Mr. Clay is eminently entitled to the merit of the success of the 
great measures which rescued the country from its perils. He 
brought forward, at an early day, his report and bill from the 
Committee of Thirteen, which proposed to admit California as a 
State into the Union ; to establish Territorial governments for 
New Me.xico and Utah without any prohibition of Slavery, and 
to tender proposals to Texas for the establishment of her western 
and northern boundaries which could not fail to be satisfactory 
to ihat Slate, — measures which he continued to advocate, with 
unabated ardor and exhaustless energy, up to the day of their 
triumphant passage through both Houses of Congress. The 
great task which he had undertaken upon entering the Senate 
was accomplished. He had saved the Republic for the third 
time. It was the boast of Antony over the body of Caesar, that, 
although he had fallen under the avenging dagger of Brutus, he 
had thrice refused a kingly crown. How transcendently does 
the form of Mr. Clat rise above that of the Roman Avhen we fix 
our eyes upon him in the last great act of his career, and see 
him as he stands in the sublime attitude of an American senator 
who had thrice saved his country from civil war ! Themistocles 
earned imperishable fame by the victory which he achieved over 
the Persians in the Bay of Salamis, but what was such a victory, 
brilliant as it was, compared with that great civic achievement 
of Mr. Clay which crowned his long and illustrious life ? 

After the accomplishment of his last great task, Mr. Clay's 
health gradually declined. He returned to Washington, at the 
opening of the late session of Congress, to defend the measures 
to which he had consecrated his last days. But the great soul 
which had so long urged his enfeebled body to patriotic taska 
could no lono-er command his failing strength. Unable to 
take part in the deliberations of the Senate, he remained almost 



•■i 



460 EULOGY OF MR. IIILLIAKD. 

constantly in his chamber. The hope of visiting Ashland, and 
of closing his days in the sacred retirement of his home, for 
some lime cheered him. He resigned his seat in the Senate, 
intending to quit Wasliington at the close of the session of Con- 
gress. Spring came, with its genial influence reviving the face 
of Nature, but it brouy;ht with it no restoration to the declininir 
powers of Mr. Clay. 

The hope of revisiting Ashland was relinquished, and he 
calmlv awaited the stroke of death. In the summer of 1847 he 
had become a member of the Protestant Episcopal church, and 
he found now in his chamber, about which the shadows of death 
were beginning to close, the cheering and sustaining power of 
an immortal hope. The dying statesman gradually withdrew his 
thoughts from the affairs of this world. He was never more to 
stand in the Senate chamber, — never again to sway the passions 
of assembled thousands by his resistless eloquence. The eyes 
which had flashed with patriotic fire were filled now with the 
mild radiance of the heaven to which they were turned. He 
spoke of his family, his friends, and his country, and said to a 
friend, "I am not afraid to die, sir. I have faith, hope, and 
some confidence. I do not think any man can be entirely certain 
in regard to his future state, but I have an abiding trust in the 
merits and mediation of our Saviour." The sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper was administered to him, and he meekly received 
those emblems of a death out of which spring our immortal 
hopes. He expired tranquilly on the twenty-ninth of June, in 
the seventy-sixth year of his age. 

Statesman, yet fiiend to truth, of sonl sincere. 

Of action faithful, and in honor clear, 

Who broke no promise, served no private end. 

Who gained no title, and who lost no friendj 

Ennobled by himself, by all approved. 

Praised, wept, and honored by the land he loved." 

The announcement of Mr. Clay's death produced throughout 
the whole country the deepest sensation. It struck most hearts 
as if the intelligence of the death of a personal friend had reached 
them, and the whole people rose up to pay such honors to his 



EULOGY OF MR. HILLIAKD. 461 

memory as had never been accorded to any statesman of this 
country. 

The popular enthusiasm which was accustomed to greet him 
in his travels, was now converted into a pervading grief, which 
covered the multitudes who thronged about his honored remains, 
as they were borne to the tomb, wiih the habiliments of a mourn- 
ing distinguished as much for its depth and sincerity as for its 
solemn magnificence. 

Mr. Clay's cast of character was American, — distinctly 
American. It was his aim to develop the resources of his 
country, and to elevate it to a hight of prosperity and grandeur 
never before reached by any nation in ancient or modern times. 
His plans were bold and comprehensive, looking to the happiness 
and glory of the whole Republic rather than to the advancement 
of any particular section. He comprehended the complex char- 
acter of our Government ; and while he left local interests to 
the protection of the Slates where they existed, he devoted his 
energies to the support of great measures, whose success he 
deemed essential to tlie full development of the boundless ele- 
ments of wealth and power which the nation possessed. He has 
been charged with a purpose to enrich one section of the country 
at the expense of another, but no man ever less deserved the 
charge. He could not belong to a section, but he gave his great 
faculties to the cause of his country, — his whole country. 

The lofty summit upon which he stood as a statesman enabled 
him to see the country in its broadest extent ; and while many 
stood upon a lower level, — would see only the narrow district 
to which they happen to belong, — his eyes swept the remotest 
verge of the vast domain embraced by our Government. Fortu- 
nately, most of the great questions which have arrayed the 
American people in opposing parties have been national and not 
sectional. A settled geographical division of parties, such as 
on one or two occasions we have witnessed, would be fataJ to 
the Republic. 

Mr. Clay was, beyond a question, the noblest illustraiion of a 
national statesman which his country has ever produced. He 
kept his views rigidly within the limits of the Constitution, but 



462 EULOGY OF MK. IIILLIaED. 

•within those limits all his faculties were employed in a steady 
and heroic struggle to give success to systems embracing the 
interests of the American people. 

His American System was an illustration of the breadth and 
nationality of his views. The South opposed it generally, but 
even here opinion was divided in regard to it. The opinion, 
however, that iis tendency was to foster the manufacturing enter- 
prises of the North at the expense of the planting interest of the 
South gradually gained ground with us, and the utmost hostility 
existed ao-ainst it in most of the Southern States. But Mr. 
Clay's aim never was fur a moment to depress the one section 
and elevate the other. He believed that the system would be so 
adjusted by a wise discrimination in fixing the duties on imports 
as to result in an actual benefit to the whole country, making us 
independent of foreign establishments, preventing the balance 
of trade ao-ainst us with other countries, and securing to the 
Southern people a domestic market for their products above that 
which they could find elsewhere. His magnificent system of 
Internal Improvements, limited to objects strictly national, was 
also the result of the comprehensive views which characterized 
him as a statesman. If he had administered the Government, it 
would not have been necessary to associate any one with him to 
keep the supreme Executive power from swerving from a national 
course. The two councils of Rome did not look more steadily 
to the glory of the empire than he would have looked to the glory 
of the Republic. Mr. Clay's nationality was the result of a pro- 
found study of the nature of our Government, — of the character 
of the American people. 

He contended for what seemed to him a just construction of 
the Constitution, and he felt that, while a narrower interpretation 
of its meaninar miy-ht save the Government from occasional 
abuses, it would, at the same time, deny to it the powers which 
it really possessed, and render that a feeble and an inefficient 
system which was designed to be a great and beneficent one. 

Some of our statesmen, apprehending danger from the power 
of the Central Government, have steadily I'esisted its growth, 
and, like Patrick Henry, have sought to hedge it in, as if it were 



EULOGY OF MR. IIILLIARD. 463 

a formidable despotism. With them the President is a monarch 
likely to become a despot. Others have desired to usurp the 
rights of the States, and to build up a powerful consolidated 
Government. 

Mr. Clay escaped both these extremes, and planted himself 
upon ground which the eminent French statesman, Casimir 
Perrier, would have pronounced le juste milieu. He recognized 
the rights of the States, and he claimed for the Federal Govern- 
ment its full power. Mr. Clay has been charged with ambition. 
That he desired to attain power it would be useless to deny. 
Where is the statesman of noble aims and great abilities who 
does not desire it? The remark of Burke is a philosophical 
truth, "Ambition is the malady of every extensive genius." But 
Mr. Clay's ambition was pure and generous. 

He never sought to attain power by unworthy means ; he never 
swerved from the direct path of duty to conciliate public favor. 
His sympathies with the people were full and sincere, but he 
never pandered to their passions or bent before their clamors. 
His opinions upon all subjects were frankly expressed ; he dis- 
dained concealment. He never surrendered his own independent 
sentiments, but courageously encountered the fiercest opposition 
to them, whether that opposition was presented by executive 
power, or by the representatives of the people, or by the people 
themselves. His remark, made to his friend, Mr. Preston, of 
South Carolina, revealed his character. In reply to a suggestion 
that the opinion which he was about to avow on a certain occa- 
sion might affect his position before the people, and endanger his 
election to the Presidency, he exclaimed, " I would rather be 
right than be President." The heroic sentiment will become 
immortal. Mr. Clay did not exhibit the Roman sternness which 
characterized Mr. Calhoun, yet he possessed firmness in the 
highest degree. No man could plant himself more resolutely in 
defense of a position than Mr. Clay. Like Fitz-James, he would 
have met the whole band of Roderick Dhu without the yielding 
of a muscle. 

Yet no statesman of our country was ever so conciliatory. 
Whatever may have been his ambition, it always gave way before 



464 EULOGY OF ME. HILLIAKU. 

the call of his country. He would meet, xmmoved, any dangeis 
which threatened him personally, but he relinquished, without 
reluctance, his most cherished opinions when the welfare of his 
country demanded the sacrifice. 

When urging upon the Senate the adoption of his Compromise 
Bill for adjusting the perilous contest with South Carolina, he 
said, '• If I had yielded myself to the dictates of a cold, calcu- 
lating, and prudential public policy, I would have stood still and 
unmoved. I might even have silently gazed on the raging storm, 
enjoyed its loudest thunders, and left those who were charged 
with the care of the vessel of State to conduct it as they could." 
But he hastened to restore harmony to a distracted land. Mr. 
Clay's attachment to the Union was profound and unconquerable. 
His failure to reach the highest office in the country never alien- 
ated his afi'ections. While others enjoyed the supreme power, 
he never ceased to labor for the good of Rome. No personal 
success could have compensated him if his elevation to power 
had endangered the perpetuity of the Government. 

He believed our system to be capable of vast expansion ; and 
when he saw our institutions seated on the Pacific shores, he 
insisted that Congress should promptly receive into the Union 
the State of California. A republic covering the continent with 
its institutions, and gathering under one common government 
the mighty population spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific, 
was the vision which filled his heart with exultation as he looked 
out upon his country for the last time. He sought to strengthen 
the Government, not by usurpations of power, but by measures 
which would bind the remotest parts of the country in willing 
and indestructible political bands. He preferred to carry his 
measures by enlisting in their support men of all parties, rather 
than to press them upon the country by the mere power of dis- 
ciplined numbers. He saw clearly all the aspects of every ques- 
tion ; and while his own courage was never intimidated, nor his 
resolute purpose ever shaken, he was at all times ready to modify 
his measures, so far as they could be modified without impairing 
their efficiency, or sacrificing the principles upon which they 
were based, that he might make them acceptable to those who 



EULOGY Oli' Mli. HILLIAKD, 465 

did nut agree with liim. As a parliamentary leader, Mr. Clay 
has never been equaled in this country. He combined wiih 
great abilities that faculty so important to success in political 
life, — tact. His abilities commanded the attention of the poliiical 
bodies in whose debates he took part, and his tact enabled him lo 
carry his measures. 

He was the boldest of all our statesmen. Whether in il.e 
House of Representatives sustaining an administration, or in ihe 
Senate opposing the Government, his courage never sank f <; a 
moment, and his crest rose still higher when leading the opposi- 
tion than it did when defending its powers. 

He attacked the Government, however powerfully intrenched, 
with as much vigor as Ricliard Coeur de Lion did the castle '-f 
Front-de-Boeuf, when he thundered against its gates with i.is 
battle-ax, amid tlie missiles which were showered upon him fr. ni 
its defenders, regarding them no more than if they had b-'a 
feathers or the thistle's down; and his eye flashing along ii;e 
wavering columns of his allies, fired them with his own indomi- 
table spirit. For years he presented to General Jackson a fmnt 
which never blanched, and he defied his boundless popular 
power with a steady and heroic firmness which won for h.ia 
the admiration of friends and foes, and presented to the couii y 
the noblest illustration of the august character of an Amerk a.m 
SENATOR which has ever been witnessed. 

He possessed the qualities which w^ould have made him a 
transcendenily great military leader; the high courage, — uo 
quick perception, — the comprehensive view of details scatte;ri 
over a wide field, — the decision which adopts, without hesila inii, 
the true course of action, — the power to infuse his own ardoi- 
into the bosoms of those about him, and the faculty of inspirii'.g 
the followers of his standard with undoubted confidence in i.icJ 
abilities. 

Ii. is understood that Mr. Madison would have placed him nl 
the head of the army, in the last war with England, if he cou! ! 
have b"<'n spared from the House of Representatives. 

Mr. Clav's inielleciual powers pre-eminently fitted him '' ■ 
a parliamentary career. Wiih.)Ut tlie massive strength of Mr. 



4:66 EULOGY OF ME. IIILLIARD. 

Webster, or the condensed and logical force of Mr. Calhoun, he 
was more efficient than either. His mind was not in the least 
degree metaphysical ; it was altogether practical, rapid, and 
direct. He was capable of profound and patient analysis, and 
he has, in some of his more elaborate speeches, displayed this 
faculty with high success ; but he preferred to present the great 
features of a subject, that it might be seen whole, rather than to 
pursue its remote and less striking relations. His mind was 
characterized by originality, power, and comprehensiveness. 
His resources were inexhaustible. The measures which Mr. 
Clay conceived and brought before Congress, displayed states- 
manship of the very highest order ; and his fame will rest upon 
them as firmly as a mountain, lifting its head to the heavens, 
stands upon its granite base. 

As an Orator, Mr. Clay stood unrivaled among the statesmen 
of our times ; and if the power of a statesman is to be measured 
by the control which he exerts over an audience, he will take 
rank among the most illustrious men who, in ancient or modern 
times, have decided great questions by resistless eloquence. 

Mr. Calhoun was the finest type of the pure Greek intellect 
which this country has ever produced. His speeches resemble 
Grecian sculpture, with all the purity and hardness of marble, 
while they show that the chisel was guided by the hand of a 
master. Demosthenes transcribed the history of Thucydides 
eight times, that he might acquire the strength and majesty of 
his style ; and Mr. Calhoun had evidently studied the orations of 
the great Athenian with equal fidelity. He had much of his 
force and ardor, and his bearing was so full of dignity that it 
was easy to fancy, when you heard him, that you were listening 
to an oration from the lips of a Roman senator, who had foi'med 
his style in the severe schools of Greece. Mr. Webster's oratory 
reaches the highest pitch of grandeur. He combines tlie pure 
pliilosophical faculty of investigation, which characterized the 
Greek mind, with the athletic power and majesty which belonged 
to the Roman style. There is in his orations a blended strength 
and beauty surpassing any thing to be found in ancient or modern 
productions. He stands like a statue of Hercules wrought out 



EULOGY OF MK. IIILLIARD. 467 

of gold. He has been sometimes called the Demosthenes of this 
country, but the attributes wliich lie displayed are not those 
wliich belonged to the Athenian orator. His speeches display 
the same power and beauty, and equal, if they do not suipass, 
in consummate ability, the noblest orations of Demosthenes ; but 
he wants the vehemence, the boldness, the impetuosity of ihe 
oratoi wlio wielded the fierce Democracy of Athens at his will, 
and who, in his impassioned harangues, "shook the Arsenal, and 
fulniined over Greece." 

Mr. Clay's oratory differed from that of Mr. Webster and of 
Mr. Caliioun, and it was more effective than that of either of 
his cotcmporaries. Less philosophical than the one, and less 
majestic than the other, he surpassed them both in the sway 
which he exerted over the assemblies wliich he addressed. 
Clear, convincing, impassioned, and powerful, he spoke the 
language of truth in its most commanding tones, and the deduc- 
tions of reason uttered from his lips seemed to have caught the 
glow of inspiration. 

Lord Brougham thinks that the ancient orators fell nearly as 
far short of the modern, in the substance of their orations, as 
they surpass them in their composition. 

He attributes this to the character of modern assemblies, 
which are places of business, where practical questions are dis- 
cussed, and where the audience must b§ convinced, and not 
merely entertained. Mr. Clay was eminently successful in 
addressing such assemblies. His large views, his sterling sense, 
the energy of his character, the earnestness of his manner, the 
sympathy between his mind and his body, gave him an ascen- 
dency over the intellect and the passions never displayed by any 
other American statesman. His form was tall and commanding ; 
his voice was unrivaled for its compass and richness ; and when 
lie rose to animation, in speaking, his countenance was lighted 
up with a glow which shed a luster upon his whole person. His 
sensibility was deep, and sometimes displayed itself in the most 
affecting manner. In the debates of the Compromise measures 
of the last Congress, it became proper for him, as a senator, to 
allude to his son v/ho fell at Bucna Vista. He was for a moment 



468 



EULOGY OK MR. JIILLIARD. 



overcome with emotion, and, putting his hand before liis eyes, he 
sought in vain to repress the tears which gushed from them. 
These elements constituted him the prince of orators; and 
whether before the Senate or in the midst of the people, in their 
great assemblies, he asserted and maintained a dominion which 
none could dispute with him. He realized Mr. Webster's de- 
scription of oratory: "The clear conception outrunning the 
deductions of logic ; the high purpose ; the firm resolve ; the 
dauntless spirit, speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, 
informing every feature, and urging the whole man onward, 
right onward, to his object : this, this is eloquence, or, rather. 
It is something greater and higher than eloquence; it is action,-^ 
noble, sublime, godlike action." His noblest eflbrts were invested 
with a fiery splendor ; and he rushed onward in his impetuous 
career, like an ancient hero, upon poised feet, his formidable 
spear lifted in his strong right hand, the wheels of his chariot 
glowing from the velocity of the onset, and their scythes sweep- 
ing down the adversaries that stood in his way. 

In conversation Mr. Clay excelled. Always ready, sometimes 
playful, often brilliant, there was a fascination in his manner 
which drew around him friends outside of the circle of his 
political associates, and his frankness and generosity gave inde- 
scribable charm to social life. 

"He was a man, take him for all in all, 
We shall not look upon his like again." 

Yet, with all these brilliant personal qualities, Henry Clay 
never became the President of the United States. In lookino- 
back to the times in which Mr. Clay, Mr. Calhoun, and Mit 
Webster lived, the succeeding generations will be at a loss to 
account for the fact, that neither of them ever attained the highest 
goal of their ambition. In Rome, they would have divided the 
consulship. lu England, they would have administered the 
government, and have received the highest aristocratic distinc- 
tions. In this Republic, they could never reach the highest post 
in the Government. Two of the great triumvirate ha°ve passed 
away from the world ; their course is run. The third vet lino-.rs 



EULOGY OF MR. HILLIAKD. 469 

upon the field of his glory, but without the slightest prospect of 
reaching the Presidency. Indeed, that splendid orb which has 
so long lighted our heavens is rapidly descending toward the 
hoiizon, and will soon disappear from it forever. 

The theory of our Government requires a first-rate man to be 
placed at the head of the administration. In England, the sove- 
reign power is vested in a hereditary monarch. His capacity is 
a matter of no great moment; the first minister of ihe crown is 
responsible for the government. But with us, the sovereignty 
resides with the people, and the President ought to be a man of 
the highest order, fm- he holds the same relation to our govern- 
ment that the Prime Minister holds to the British eovernment. 

In reviewing Mr. Clay's career, the wonder is that he could 
have failed to become President. The statue of Brutus, left out 
of the procession, will awaken inquiry as to the cause. Cromwell 
is not allowed to rank with' the sovereigns of England, although 
he controlled the government as Protector, and gave the country 
the wisest and most brilliant administration which it ever enjoyed. 
Henry Clay, who has impressed his great character upon the 
institutions of this country, never became its President. But it 
is perhaps well that he died without reaching that station. 

His immortal words, "I would rather be right than be Presi- 
dent," will thrill upon the hearts of the statesmen of the country, 
and animate them to a nobler aim than a mere lust of power. 

They will strive to serve their country, and to bear with them 
to the grave the consciousness of deserving its honors, even if the 
laurel should never encircle their brows. 

Mr. Clay's fame is imperishable ; no ofiice could have added 
to its towering gi'andeur, or have shed upon it any additional 
luster. It was becoming that he should die, as he had lived, 
" The Great Commoner." 



E xj L oa Y 



OF THE LATE 



COL ALEXANDEPi K. M'CLUXG. 



DELIVERED IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPKESENTATXVE3 
OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, OCT. 11,1852. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: 

We have met to commemorate the life and services of Henry 
Clay. After a long life — after a long, useful, and illustrious 
career — he has passed away. The fiery and aspiring spirit, 
whose earthly life was one long storm, has at length sunk to rest. 
Neither praise nor censure can now reach him. When his 
haughty soul passed away from the earth, and the giave closed 
over his dust, it also entombed, in its dark and narrow chamber, 
the bitterness of detraction, and (he tiger ferocity of party spirit, 
Avilh w^hich he had so lono- Avrestled. Death has hallowed his 
name and burnished his services bright in the memory of his 
countrymen. ' We have met to express, in the manner which the 
custom of our country has established, our appreciation of those 
services and our sense of his glory. We have met, not as par- 
tisans or friends — political or personal — of the illustrious dead, 
but as Americans, desirous to do honor to a gi-eat American. 

In attempting to discharge the duty which has been imposed 
upon me, I shall avoid the indiscriminate eulogy which is the 

(470) 



EULOGY OF COL. M CLUNG. 47| 

proverbial blemish of obituaries and funeral discourses, and 
sliall essay, however feebly, to present Mi'. Clay as he was, or, 
at least, as he seemed to me. Great beings — grand human 
creatures — scattered sparsely throughout time, should be painted 
with truth. An indiscriminate deluge of praise drowns medioc- 
I'ity and greatness in the same grave, where none can distinguish 
between them. When that greatest of all Englishmen, Oliver 
Cromwell, sat to the painter, Lely, for his portrait, whose pencil 
was addicted to flattery, he said : " Paint me as I am ; leave not 
out one Avi-inkle, scar, or blemish, at your peril." He wished to 
go to the world as he was ; and greatness is wise in wisliing it. 
No man the world ever saw was equally gi-eat in every quality 
of intellect and in every walk of action. All men are unequal ; 
and it is tasteful, as well as just, to plant the praise where it is 
true, rather than to drown all individuality and all character in 
one foaming chaos of eulogy. 

Henry Clay was most emphatically a peculiar and strongly- 
marked character ; incomparably more peculiar than any of those 
who were popularly considered his mental equals. Impetuous 
as a torrent, yet patient to gain liis ends ; overbearing and 
trampling, yet winning and soothing; hauglity and fierce, yet 
kind and gentle; dauntlessly brave in all kinds of courage, yet 
eminently prudent and conservative in all his policy, all these 
moral attributes, antithetical as they seem, would shine out 
under different phases of his conduct. 

I need not detain this audience with a lengthened biographical 
sketch of Mr. Clay. The leading historical incidents of his life 
are universally known. He was born in Virginia, certainly not 
later than 1775, most probably a year or two earlier. His pa- 
rentage was extremely humble. At the age of twenty, twenty- 
one, or (wenty-two, he emigrated to Lexington, Kentucky, where 
he undertook to pursue the great American road to eminence — 
the bar. For this career, it would have seemed, at that time, 
that his advantages were small, indeed. Young, poor, and un- 
connected, with scarcely ordinary attainments of education, he 
entered the lists with numerous and able competitors. Yet, 
Henry Clay, destitute as he was of all adventitious advantages. 



472 EULOGY OF COL. m'cLDNG. 

WH.S not destined to struggle upward along the weary and labo- 
rious path through which mediocrity toils to rank. The cedar 
imbedded in barren rocks, upon the mountain side, with scarcely 
s^iil to feed its roots, will tower above the tallest of the forest ; 
t .;■ it is its nature so to do. So this great Genius at once shot 
uj) like a shaft. He rose to high rank at the bar. In 1799 he 
was elected to the Kentucky Legislature ; in 1806, to the U. S. 
ISt-nate ; in 1811, to the House of Representatives; and there 
b- -an his national career. Since that time Mr. Clay has filled 
a laro-e space in the public eye. His career has been checkered, 
siormy and tempestuous. Now ihe ubj'-ci of universal praise ; 
now attacked with very general censure ; now culminatmg upon 
the crest of fortune's wave ; then dashed upon the rocks and 
overwhelmed with roar and clamor. It was his fate at periods 
of his career to drain to the bottom that measure of relemless 
liuie with which mean souls resent the imperial pride of haughty 
genius. It was his fate to feel that constant success is the only 
sl.ield which greatness and glory can rear against the poison of 
envy and slander's venomous sting. 

" He who ascends the mountain top shall find 

Its loftieht peaks most wrapped in clouds and sno-w; 

He who surpasses or subdues mankind, 

Must look down on the hate of those below : 
Though far above the sun of glory glow. 

And far beneath the earth and ocean spread 
Round him are icy rocks, and loudly blow 

Contending tempests on his naked head. 

Thus to reward the toils which to those summits led." 

That strong mind was tried by every extremity of fortune, 
a:i 1 if sometimes inflated by success, yet borne up by the all- 
deathless thirst for renown, the grand incentive to all great toils 
or glorious deeds, he was never depressed by defeat. He faced 
his enemies, lie faced fortune, and he faced defeat, with the same 
dauntless heart and the same unquailing brow, in youth and in 
age, regardless when or how they came, or what the peril might 
be. Yet, when most overborne with calumny ; when hatred 
raged fiercest against his person, and he was most stained with 



EULOGY OF COL. m'cLUNG. 473 

slander — even at that time, to enemies as to friends, he was an 
object of admiring respect. When lashed into fury by disap- 
pointment, defeat, and opposition, and the stormy passions of 
his tempestuous soul raged like a whirlwind, his bitterest oppo- 
nents would gaze curiously upon him with a strange mixture of 
hatred, fear, and admiration. 

There are many phases in which it is necessary to regard Mr. 
Clay, to reach a correct estimate of his character ; and to ac- 
complish their delineation without a degree of jumbling confu- 
sion, is a work of some difficulty. As an orator he was brilliant 
and o-rand. None of his cotemporaries could so stir men's 
blood. None approached him in his mastery over the heart and 
the imagination of his hearers. Of all the gifts with which 
nature decks her favorites, not the greatest or grandest certainly, 
but the most brilliant, the most fascinating, and for the moment 
the most powerful, is exalted eloquence. Before its fleeting and 
brief glare, the steady light of wisdom, logic, or philosophy 
pales, as the stars fade before the meteor. With this choice and 
glorious gift nature had endowed Mr. Clay beyond all men of 
the age. Like all natural orators, he was very unequal ; some- 
times sinking to commonplace mediocrity ; then again, when the 
occasion roused his genius, he would soar aloft in towering 
majesty. He had little or none of the tinsel of Rhetoric, or the 
wordy finery which alwa^ d lies within the reach of the Rhetor- 
ician's art. Strong passions, quick sensibility, lofty sentiment, 
powerful reason were the foundation of his oratory, as they are 
of all true eloquence. Passion, feeling, reason, wit, poured 
forth from his lips in a torrent so strong and inexhaustible, as to 
whii'l away his hearers for the time, in despite of their opinions. 
Nor should it be forgotten, slight and unimportant as physical 
qualities may appear in our estimate of the mighty dead, that his 
^ere eminently fitted for the orator. A tall, slender, erect per- 
son, chanoino- under the excitement of speech its loose flaccidity 
of muscle into the most vigorous and nerved energy ; an eye, 
small indeed, but deep and bonily set, and flaming with expres- 
sion ; and last and most important of all, a voice deep, power- 
ful, mellow, and rich beyond expression— rich is a feeble phrase 
40 



474 EULOGY OF COL. m'cLUNQ. 

to express its round, articulate fullness, rolling up with the sub- 
lime swell of the organ — all these together formed wonderful aids 
Jo eloquence. And his great and numerous triumphs attest 
(heir power. He had the true mesmeric stroke of the orator — 
the power to infuse his feelings into his hearers ; to make them 
think as he thought, and feel as he felt. No one can form any 
adequate conception of the power of his eloquence, who has no( 
heard Mr. Clay when his blood was up, and the tide of inspira- 
tion rolling full upon him. His words, indeed, might be written 
down ; but the flame of mind which sent them forth redhot and 
blazing from its mint, could not be conveyed by letters. As 
well attempt to paint the lightning. The crooked, angular line 
may be traced ; but the glare, and the flame, and the roar, and 
the terror, and the electric flash, are gone. Stormy, vehement, 
and tempestuous, as were his passions and his oratory, there was 
Still underneath them all, a cool stream of reason running 
through the bottom of his brain, which always pointed him to 
his object, and held him to his course. No orator, so passionate, 
ever committed fewer imprudences. No passions so stormy 
ever left their possessor so watcliful of his objects. Reason held 
the helm while passion blew the gale. 

As a debater, it would be unjust to say that Mr. Clay held 
the same rank ; at least it may be s»id with justice, that in all 
the walks of debate he Avas not equa.-y eminent. He was able 
everywhere ; and it is but gentle criticism to say, that in some 
trains of thought he did not shine forth with the power and 
luster which marked his eloquence. It appears to me, after 
a critical study of his speeches, that he discussed facts with as 
much power as any of his greatest rivals. It appears to me, also, 
that he fell beneath some of them in the discussion of principles. 
One of the greatest of his compeers taunted him once, in the 
Senate, with an inability to analyze abstruse subjects. The 
taunt was made stronger, probably, by anger, than truth or can- 
dor would warrant ; yet it seems to me to have been partially 
just. No one who studies Mr. Clay's arguments upon points 
of political economy, can avoid perceiving how rarely he ana- 
lyzes the principle involved. We see a vast array of facts, many 



KULOGV OF COL. m'cLUNG 475 

keen and thouohtful remarks about the results of the measure, 
but an analysis of its principle is scarcely ever attempted. He 
doubileos understood the protective tariff system better than he 
did any other subject in the range of political economy; and no 
one can read his speeches upon that question without being 
struck with this feature. It is still more marked whenever he 
discusses the subject of finance. A philosophic discussion of a 
principle, independent of the practical condition of things, is 
never to be found in his speeches ; and in this he presented a 
most pointed contrast to his great rival, Avho so short a time pre- 
ceded him to the grave. It may be said that this was the result 
of imperfect educaiion, and the barely hasty study which a bui^y, 
stirring life enabled him lo bestow upon abstruse subjects ; but 
the better opinion seems to be, that he was eminently a practical 
man, and the bent of his genius called him away from the me'a- 
physics of politics. Mr. Clay was undoubtedly a far greater 
man than the Scotch economist, Adam Smith ; yet it is not 
probable that any extent of education, or any amount of labor, 
or anv leno-ih of study, would have enabled him to write Adam 
Smith's book. Yet was he a very great debater, also. None of 
his compeers arrayed facts more skillfully — none urged them 
with so much power. He had not the compact, clean cut, 
sententious brevity, wiiich marked some of those the public 
ranked as his equals ; on the contrary, without being diffuse, he 
abounded in episodes ; he introduced much matter, bearing 
upon his point, certainly, but bearing upon it indirectly — not 
unfrequently, also, introducing matter which did not much help 
on the question in hand. He abounded in the argumentum ud 
hominem, in personal appeal, in sarcasm, with much of personal 
allusion and circumstantial explanation, often carrying him away 
from his subject for some time, to which, however, he always 
returned at precisely the point where he had left it. 

It is difficult among the great masters of oratory and debate, 
to select one whom he closely resembled. It is not probable 
that he had ever studied any of them closely ; and even had he 
done so, the originality of his genius and the intense pride of 
his haughty temper would have prevented him from stooping lo 



476 EULOGY OF COL. M CLUNG. 

select a model. If he resembled any of them, he did not know- 
it, and he would have cared as little to abolish the points of re- 
semblance as to make them. To Demosthenes, to whom he has 
been often compared, he bore a likeness in his passion, his inten- 
sity, and in his occasional want of logic; but he was utterly unlike 
him in other respects. He had none of his terseness, his naked- 
ness, and the straight-forward, unhalting directness with which he 
dashed on to his end. To Cicero he bore no resemblance what- 
ever. Among the eminent English speakers it would be almost as 
difficult to trace with him a parallel, in any considerable degree 
exact or close. The profound philosophy of Burke, with his 
gorgeous, lurid, and golden language, rolling on with the pomp 
and power of an army blazing with banners, he in no degree ap- 
proached. Sheridan's bright and pungent style, glittering with 
antithesis and point, was equally unlike him. I am inclined to 
think, that of all the speakers I have read, though with less of 
logic and wit, and more of passion, he most resembled Charles 
Fox. The same rigid adherence actually to his point, even when 
seeming to be away from it ; the same abundance and exuber- 
ance of matter ; the same gladiatorial struggle to strike down his 
opponent, though the victory might slightly afl'ect the question 
involved ; the same felicitous blending of passion and logic, with 
sparkles of sarcasm and personality spangling the whole — all 
produced strong points of resemblance, not to be traced with 
any other orator. 

To all these eminent merits as a speaker, was united a pro- 
found knowledge of men, of their motives and of their weak- 
.nesses. Though it may be that in the early part of his life, he 
had learned but little from books, yet, amid the frank, bold, and 
reckless pioneers which formed Kentucky's early population, 
where the man stood forth in all the oi'iginality and nakedness 
of his nature, and amid the stormy scenes of the hustings iu 
which he was early plunged, he had gained that quick insight 
into the human heart, which in practical life goes farther to 
attain success than reams of reading. He knew men thor- 
oughly, and not only knew how, but possessed the magnetic 
power to bend them to his purposes. 



EULOGY OF COL. m'cLUNG. 477 

There is probably no position in life Avbich requires such a 
combination of rare and high qualities as that of a great popular 
lea(l< r. He must be bold and prudent, prompt and patient, 
stern and conciliating, captivating, commanding, far-seeing, and 
abc ve all, brave to perfection. The first man in the nation, the 
first in power, undoubtedly, whatever may be bis place, is the 
leader of the administration, be he in Congress or the Cabinet, 
President or private. The leader of the opposition can hardly 
be called the second man in rank or power ; but if his party be 
strong and struggling, bis position is one of great strength, and 
enables him, though out of the government, to strongly aS'ect it 
in the direction of the affairs of the nation. One of these atti- 
tudes, Mr. Clay held throughout the greater part, and all the 
latter portion, of his life. 

He led the administration party, under Mr. Madison's presi- 
dency, throughout the trying scenes of the war, and upon him 
fell the brunt of that fierce congressional struggle. When the 
cowardice of some commanders, and the incapacity of all of them 
in the commencement of the war, had brought about a series of 
shameful disasters, which made every American blush for his 
country, Henry Clay stood forth in advance of all, to encourage, 
to console, and to rouse his countrymen to renewed efforts. De- 
feats, disasters, blunders, and shame hung heavy upon the party 
in power, and disheartened its followers, while the eloquent 
chiefs of the opposition poured forth a tempest of invective, de- 
nunciation, and ridicule against the feeble and futile efforts, in 
Avhich the honor of the nation was sullied and its strength lost. 
But the fiercer roared the storm, the sterner and higher pealed 
forth his trumpet voice to rally his broken forces, and marshal 
them anew for the struggle. To Henry Clay, far in front of all 
others, that administi-ation owed its support through the trying 
scenes of that bitter contest. 

He afterward led the opposition through the terms of Jackson, 
Van Buren, and Tyler. The unexampled dexterity, skill, pa- 
tience, firmness, and hardiness, with which, in despite of re- 
peated defeats, he still maintained the war, must excite unmixed 
admiration in all who may study his career. 



478 EULOGY OF COL. m'cLDNQ. 

Courage is a high quality. Courage — perfect, multiform, and 
unquenchable, one of the highest and rarest of all moral quali- 
ties ; — it is the most essential to a great popular leader, most 
especially the leader of an opposition ; and with that glorious 
gift nature had endowed Mr. Clay to extremity. There was no 
political responsibility whicli he ever avoided to take ; there was 
no personal peril which he ever shunned to dare ; there was no 
raw in the opposing party which he ever failed to strike. His 
heart never failed him in any extremity. He met every crisis 
promptly and at once, and in this he bore a remarkable contrast 
to almost every other politician of the age. None of his cotem- 
poraries approached him, in this bold, unhesitating promptness, 
but the man of his destiny, his great rival, Jackson, with whom, 
in so many other points, so close a parallel might be traced. In 
Democracies, where the will of the people must be the ultimate 
law of the land, and uncertainty as to their decision is apt to 
induce politicians to wait and watch for indications of the prob- 
able result, the timid timeserver Avill fear to move ; he will fear 
to take ground upon any question until some gleam of light 
break out from the mass of the people, to show him the probable 
path to safety. Fears, misgivings, uncertainty as to his per- 
sonal interest, keep him silent and still, while the masses stumble 
onward to their decision without the light of a leader. But no 
fainthearted doubts ever clouded his bright eye, when Harry 
Clay was in the field. Like the white plume of Murat, amid 
the smoke, and the roar, and the turmoil of battle, his lofty crest 
was ever glittering in the van for the rally of his host. He 
waited for no indications of popularity, for he received his in- 
spirations from his own clear head and dauntless heart. His 
convictions were so strong, his self-confidence so unbounded, 
his will so indomitable, his invention so rapid, his genius so 
grand and lofty, that he seemed to bear, stamped upon his brow, 
nature's patent to command. He moved among his partisans 
with an imperial, never-doubting, overpowering air of authority, 
which few were able to resist. He tolerated no insubordination. 
Opposition seemed to him to be rebellion, and obey or quit the 
camp, death or tribute, was his motto ; and he rare/y failed to 



EULOGY OF COL. m'cLUNG, 479 

force obedience. Though the powerful rally which was made 
against him among his associates in 1840 and '48, when fortune 
furnished the weapon to strike, exposed how much of secret 
dislike his despotic will had banded against him, yet it was gen- 
erally beaten down to submission. His ablest and haughtiest 
comrades Avould, in general, sullenly obej' — "willing to wound, 
but yet afraid to strike." When in 1832, he wheeled short upon 
his footsteps, with his Compromise Bill upon the Tariff, he 
carried with him the great bulk of his partisans in Congress, 
and the whole of them in the country, though directly committed 
to the support of that measure. In 1826, he carried with him 
his friends from Ohio, Missouri, and Kentucky, for Mr. Adams, 
against Gen. Jackson, though with that vote, political destruc- 
tion loomed up darkly in their front. Nor was it necessary that 
the question should lie in his path to make him meet it. He 
spoke out bold and free on all points, in front or around him, far 
or near. In 1826, he was Secretary of State, and not neces- 
sarily involved in the ephemeral domestic politics of his State. 
Kentucky was boiling like a mighty caldron upon the subject of 
her relief laws. True to his nature, Mr. Clay spoke out clear 
and strong in behalf of justice and sound policy against the 
current of an overpowering majority. Under the same circum- 
stances he took the same responsibility two years afterward, 
upon the question of the old and new courts. This unhesitating 
and honest audacity necessarily entailed upon him many tempo- 
rary disasters, but he always came up again fresh and strong. 
Like the fabled wrestler of antiquity, he rose from his mother 
earth stronoer in his rebound than before his fall. OverAvhelmed 
with calumny, he encountered a defeat in 1828, which would 
have broken the heart and blighted the fame of any other popular 
leader in the nation. Even Kentucky, the last covert of the 
hunted stag, was beaten fiom his grasp ; yet he still made head, 
banded his broken forces, and four years afterward again met 
his destiny in the same man. He encountered a defeat terrible 
and overAvhelming, yet he stood under it erect and lofty as a 
tower. He had now left the retirement, from whence, as a gen- 
eral, he had marshaled his array, and had come down into the 



480 EULOGY OF COL. m'cLDNG. 

arena of the halls of Congress to strike as well as order. And 
in the tremendous struggles of those stormy sessions, the battle 
of the giants, most gloriously did he lead the assault. It is in- 
spiriting to see how manfully he upheld the day. The repeated 
disasters which had crushed the hope and cowed the spirit of 
his partisans, broke vainly upon his haughty front. Defiance, 
stern and high, blazed in every feature, and war to the knife in 
every word. It was a brave sight to see how gallantly he would 
dash into the melee, deal his crashing blows right and left, 
among Van Buren, Benton, Forsythe, and Wright ; trample the 
wretched curs of party into the dust beneath his feet, and strike, 
with all his stren<>-th full at the towering crest of Jackson. 

Nor was it only in the bold and stern qualities of the party 
leader that he excelled ; he could be winning and gentle, too. 
While there was any hope of winning an opponent to the sup- 
port of a measure, no man was more conciliating ; while his 
partisans would obey, no man was more kind and gentle ; and 
his high-strung nature rendered his courtesy more attractive 
than tlie most dextrous flatter^'' of other men. As instances of 
this skill, I may mention that he twice cai'ried through his Land 
Bill against a dead majority in both houses ; that he carried 
through his Missouri Compromise, when at first the effort 
seemed hopeless ; and that he won a passage for his Bank Bills 
in 1832 and '41, with a minority of supporters in the first in- 
stance, and with an uncertain, hesitating, unreliable majority in 
the last. 

He was patient too, and could bide his time. In 1840, intestine 
commotion first appeared in his party, and he first met formidable 
and organized resistance to his will. He had for years fought oixt 
every campaign, as the leader of the opposition ; his tactics had 
been brilliant, dextrous, and admirable. The party in power was 
broken down, and he thought he saw himself close upon the long- 
delayed fruition of all his hopes. The bright crown of glory 
which had so long glittered before his eyes, but to elude his 
grasp, was now within his reach. But another was selected to 
wear, when he had won it. Another was chosen to reap the 
harvest which he had worked, and watched, and tended. Then, 



EULOGY OF COL. m'cLUNG. 481 

for the first time, he met, what he felt to be, rebellion in his 
camp. Then, for the first time, he saw his standard deserted. 
His own appreciation of the services he had rendered his party 
was strong- and intense ; and under so crushing a blow, a fiery, 
impetuous man might be expected to commit some imprudence. 
Doubtless his heart beat thick with a sense of injustice, and his 
blood boiled in resentment. Yet he betrayed nothing of it, at 
least not in public. The great party leader knew how to bide 
his time. He bowed gracefully to the decision, threw himself 
cordially into tlie movement, and was still the recognized chief 
of the host which mustered under the banner of another. His 
was the power behind the throne, greater than the throne itself. 
Four years afterward he reaped the fruit of his prudence and 
his patience. He was supported with zeal and unanimity by 
those who before had struck him down ; and certainly nothing 
but the mine which was so suddenly sprung beneath his feet, 
prevented his triumph. After a close and most desperate 
struggle, he fell again, and apparently forever. Yet, even after 
this apparently final blow, another efibrt was made, which most 
strikingly illustrates his character, and displayed upon a broad 
ground his prodigious power over men, and his buoyant, confi- 
dent, sanguine, unbreakable spirit. When he was struck down 
in 1844, it seemed that his race was run. His defeats had been 
so numerous and continued, he had been so long in the public 
eye, he was so far advanced in years, the rivals of his middle 
age, Adams, Jackson, Crawford, had all passed away, and he 
seemed to be of a former generation. The public heart felt that 
his career was closed. The old make way for the young, and a 
new race had arisen. Taylor's victories had arrested the public 
mind, and the veteran statesman of Ashland was forgotten ; yet, 
he attempted to stem the tide of victory in the very fullness of its 
power. His control over men was so prodigious, he bestirred 
himself so vigorously, he struck so hard and true to his mark, 
that, with most of his close friends directly committed against 
him, and in spite of the general sense of the public, he scarcely 

failed to win. None but a spirit as dauntless as his own, would 
41 



4:82 EULOGY OF COL. M CLUNG. 

have dared the struggle. None but a power so great could 
have made it. 

As a statesman, undoubtedly, Mr. Clay was entitled to the 
A'ery highest rank among all his cotemporaries. It has been 
generally conceded, that his learning was not profound or va- 
rious. Of science, in its limited sense, he knew but little, and 
of the lighter and less important branches of study and accom- 
plishment, still less. It is said, tliat he cared nothing for liter- 
ature ; had never searched deeply into history ; and it is remark- 
able, that thouo-h at one lime a minister abroad, and for four 
years as Secretary of State, in constant relations and intercourse 
with foreign envoys of every nation, he spoke no language but 
his own. But he knew thoroughly, that which it most imported 
him to know. He was profoundly versed in the theory and 
practices of our own government, and in a knowledge of the 
powers of each branch of it. He knew intimately and to the 
bottom, the connection, political and commercial, of America 
with all other nations. He knew perfectly the relation which 
each part of the country bore to the other, and he understood 
profoundly the character, genius, and wants of the American 
people. There was nothing sectional in his policy. His broad 
and comprehensive genius held in its vision the interest of the 
whole nation, and his big American heart throbbed for it all. 
He was intensely American in all his thoughts and all his feel- 
ings. To cherish the interest and the glory, and to build up 
the power of his country, and his whole country, was the aim 
of all his policy and the passion of his life. No candid reader 
w4io may study his cai'eer can deny, that on all great occasions, 
he was not only purely patriotic, but eminently self-sacrificing. 
Far brighter examples of this patriotic spirit, will at once occur 
to all who are familiar with his career ; but at this moment, 1 
will only allude to the instances in which he took ground upon 
Kentucky state politics, wdiich I cited as examples of his unhes- 
itating boldness, when I was discussing his character as a party 
leader. Like all other true statesmen, his ideas were all lelative, 
not absolute. He was in no degree a man of one idea. He was 



EULOGY OF COL, m'cLUNG. 483 

not wedded peremptorily and at all hazards to any measure, or 
any principle. . He understood the policy of a nation, not as a 
fixed maiiiematical theorem, where, under all circumstances and 
at all times, every result but one must be wrong ; but as the 
practical science of fitting measures to the occasion, to necessity, 
and to the times. The best practical good which could be se- 
cured was his aim, and under some circumstances he would 
maintain what, under a different condition of affairs, he would 
oppose. Without discussing the philosophical soundness of his 
political economy, or the correctness of all his measures, it may 
be stated with truth, that in them all, he looked to the integrity 
and independence, political and commercial, of the nation. The 
energy of his support of it, gave to him the rank of the 
champion of the protective tariff policy, though it was estab- 
lished before he came into political life ; and his arguments in its 
favor, principally turn upon the maintenance of the commercial 
independence of the country. Yet, he was not wedded to it; 
and when its continuance menaced danger to the country, he 
himself led the way in pulling it down. 

The monument to his memory on the Cumberland road, 
bears testimony to his efforts in behalf of national woiks of in- 
ternal improvement. He was also the author of some important, 
and of some great and vital measures. He originated the 
scheme for the distribution among the Slates, of the public 
lands ; he was the author of the Missouri Compromise, and of 
the adjustment of the last stormy agitation of the Slavery sub- 
ject. These three measures were his own. They were struck 
off in the mint of liis own mind. The first of these measures 
must be criticised both as the movement of a party leader and a 
statesman, and with regard to the condition of things at the 
time, to understand its real merit, and to deal justice to its 
author. Shortly after the revolution, in the magnanimous spirit 
of that immortal age, the States ceded the lands to the general 
government, as a security for the payment of the national debt. 
That debt was nearly satisfied, when Mr. Clay's measure was 
devised, and the treasury was overflowing with revenue. It was 
the general sense of all parties, that the land fund should be 



4:84 EULOGY OF COL. m'cLUNG. 

withdrawn from the current support of the general government; 
and Congress was overrun with schemes to squander it. Some 
of ihe Slates asserted the monstrous heresy of a title to all, within 
their limits, by right of their sovereignty. Propositions for 
grants to Slates, companies, and individuals were rife in each 
Hall ; and, probably, by no other movement would it have been 
p issible to rescue and preserve, for the benefit of the Union, 
that immense fund from squandering dissipation. Considered 
•without reference to the schemes of abandonment, which it was 
necessary to oppose, the measure does not appear to be founded 
on philosophical soundness and policy. In the United States, 
we have two circles of government, with a common constit- 
uency. The State and Fedeial governments are organs of the 
same people. They have separate and distinct powers, different 
circles and measures of authoi-ity and action, but a common and 
the same constituency. Both governments are mere abstrac- 
tions ; while the living, breathing power, is the people and the 
same people. The same men are citizens of one government 
and the other. The same people bear the burden, pay the 
revenue, and enjoy the benefits of them both. Both govern- 
ments are ideal existences, artificial organs of one common 
master. Therefore, it does not appear, when abstractly con- 
sidered, to be sound or philosophical statesmanship, to give to 
the people, through one organ, a portion of the public revenue, 
Avhen the same people will be compelled to pay it back again in 
a diflferent shape to the other. It seems to be shifting a treasure 
from one pocket to the other, Avith some loss on the passage. 

But, considered as a movement to prevent that great fund 
from being squandered, it was the stroke of a statesman, and as 
(he tactics of a party leader the conception Avas most dextrous. 
The country was upon the eve of a presidential election, and the 
disposition of the land fund was to the candidates a most per- 
ilous and embarrassing question. Mr. Clay's opponents in the 
Senate constituting a majority, determined to complicate him 
with the subject, and in spite of the remonstrances and votes of 
himself and his friends, they referred it to the committee upon 
manufactures, of which he Avas chairman — the last committee in 



EULOGY OF COL. M CLUNG. 485 

the House to which the subject was appropriate and german. 
This disposal of the subject, unjust as it was, compelled him to 
take it up. If he favored or opposed any of the numerous 
grants for various purposes, somewhere in the nation, loss to 
him would ensue. If he favored the proposition to cede the 
lands to tlie new States, he disgusted the old. If he opposed it, 
he offended the new. But the invention of the old party leader 
came to his rescue, and, as his return blow, he conceived the 
counterstroke of a distribution among all the States. 

On the two other great occasions, when sectional excitement 
shook the Union to its center, to which I have referred, he ap- 
peared as a mediator. He was the author of the Missouri Com- 
promise, and of the adjustment measures of the stormy session 
of 1850. The completely relative cast of all his political ideas, 
the total absence from his character of fanaticism upon any 
opinion or principle, eminently fitted him for a mediator ; and 
upon all dangerous questions he always acted that part. When- 
ever conflicting interests or opinions menaced the integrity of 
the Union, he stood forth as the harbinger and the champion of 
peace and conciliation. He saw the wretched condition of the 
miserable little republics of South America, feeble, demoralized, 
and contemptible, at Avar with each other, tiampled upon by 
every European power, and despised by the world. He was a 
member of a great nation ; he loved his country, and his whole 
country, from North to South, from the big lakes to tl\e Gulf, 
from ocean to ocean, from the sunrise to the sunset, and every 
feeling of his heart, every thought of his brain, revolted at dis- 
memberment. It is enough to say, in eulogy of those measures, 
and it should immortalize the q-ieat statesman who conceived 
them, that both the great divisions of the American people have 
adopted them both, as a part of their political creed. 

Doubtless, some portion of his influence in the adjustment of 
those perilous questions, arose from the entirely moderate and 
conservative character of his opinions upon that subject, and 
from the peculiarity of his position. He was a native and a 
Representative of a Slave Stale ; he had never lived anywhere 
else ; and while unflinchingly true, at all times, and upon all 



4S6 EULOGY OF COL. M CLUNG. 

points, to the rights of the Southern States, yet, he considered 
slavery as a great, though unavoidable eviL But he was in no 
degiee impassioned and blinded in regard to it. He looked at 
the subject calmly and Avilhout exaggei'ation ; not through the 
magnifying glass of religious fanaticism or distorted philan- 
thropy, but with the calm eye of a practical statesman. He 
maintained the policy of gradual emancipation on both occasions 
that the subject was agitated in Kentucky, openly and vigor- 
ously ; contending that the great numerical preponderance of 
the whiles over the blacks in that State rendered their gradual 
emancipation and removal safe and easily attainable. At the 
same time he always declared that he considered all such 
schemes to be utterly impracticable in the planting States ; and 
if a citizen of one of them, he would oppose them all, because 
the numbers of the blacks would render their removal impossi- 
ble, and their continual presence disadvantageous and perilous 
to the whites. He favored emancipation in Keniucky, while 
farther South he declared he considered it utterly impracticable. 
These views he urged and amplified at length, not only in the 
discussion of the question in his own State, but also in the 
United States Senate, while discussing the reception of petitions 
for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. This 
position might also be referred to, as another illustration of the 
practical and completely relative character of all his political 
ideas. Doubtless, as an abstract proposition, considered without 
reference to its inevitable existence or the perilous consequences 
of its cessation, he was opposed to slavery ; for liberty was the 
passion of his life. His own country and his own countrymen 
were the first and the principal object in his thoughts and in his 
heart ; but his broad and extended philanthropy embraced the 
world. Even the degraded African slave, separated from his 
own race by a wide and impassable gulf, found in him a well- 
wisher to his moral and mental elevation, when ic could occur 
safely, in a different land and another clime. Wherever abroad 
freedom found a volaiy^ that volarj'- met in him a champion. 
When Greece, the classic land of Greece — the fountain of re- 
finement, the birthplace of eloquence, and poetry, and liberty — 



f 



EULOGY OF COL. m'cLUNG. 487 

when Greece awoke from the long- skimber of ages, and beat 
back the fading Crescent to its native East ; when Macedon at 
last called to mind the feats of her conquering boy, and the 
Spartan again struck in for the land which had bred him, in 
Henry Clay's voice the words of cheering rolled over the blue 
waters, from the far west, as the greeting of the New World to 
Jhe Old. When Mexico, and our sister republics of the extreme 
South, shook off the rotted yoke of the fallen Spaniard, and 
freedom's face, for one brief moment, gleamed under the pale 
light of the Southern Cross, it was he who spoke out again, to 
cheer and to rouse its champions. The regenerated Greek, the 
dusky Mexican, the Peruvian mountaineer — all, who would 
strike one blow for liberty, found in him a friend and an advo- 
cate. His words of cheering swept over the plains of Marathon, 
and came ringing back from the peaks of the Andes. 

But that voice is now stilled, and his bright eye closed for- 
ever. He has gone from our midst, and the -wailing of grief 
which rose from the nation, and the plumage of mourning which 
shrouded its cities, its halls, and its altars, attest his country- 
men's sense of their loss. He has gone, and gone in glory. 
From us rises the dirge ; with him floats the psean of triumph. 
By a beautiful decree and poetical justice of destiny, it was 
fated that the last eftbrt of the Union's great champion should 
be made in behalf of the Union, in its last great extremity. He 
passed ofl:' the stage as became the Gieat Pacificator. His dying 
effort was worthy of and appropriate to him. When the foun- 
tains of the great deep of the public mind were broken up, and 
the fierce passions of sectional animosity tore over it, as the 
storms sweep over the ocean, it was from his voice that the 
words of soothing came forth, "Peace, be still." 

It w^as his last battle, and the gallant veteran fought it out 
with the power and the fire of his prime. The expiring light of 
life, though flickering in its last beams, blazed up to the fullness 
of its meridian luster. There was no fading away of intellect, 
or gradual decay of body. Minds like his, and souls so fiery, 
are cased in frames of steel, and when they fall at last, they fall 
at once. The Union was not compelled to blush for the decay 



488 EULOGY OF COL. m'cLUNQ, 

of the Union's great champion. Age had not crumbled the 
stately dignity of his form, nor reduced his manly intellect to 
the imbecility of second childhood. He faded away into no 
feeble twilight ; he sank down to no dim sunset ; but sprang 
out of life in the bright place of meridian fullness. He passed 
down into the valley of the shadow of death with all his glory 
unclouded, with all his laurels fresh and green around him. 
Not a spot obscures the luster of his crest ; not a sprig has been 
torn from his chaplet. " The dead Douglass has won the field." 
His dying ear rang with the applause of his country, and the 
hosannas of a nation's gratitude. Death has given to him the 
empire in the hearts of his countrymen, not fully granted to the 
living man — and, although it was not decreed that the first 
honors of the nation should await him, its last blessings will clus- 
ter around his name. His memory needs no monument. He 
wants no mausoleum of stone or marble to imprison his sacred 
dust. Let him rest amid the tokens of the freedom he so much 
loved. Let him sleep on, where the whistling of the tameless 
winds — the ceaseless roll of the murmuring waters — the chirping 
of the wild bird — and all which speaks of Liberty, may chant 
his eternal lullaby. Peace be with thy soul, Henry Clay 1 
May the earth lie light upon thee, and the undying laurel of 
glory grow green over thy grave. 




NATIONAL 'CLAY" MONUMKNT, 

I, EXINUTON, KV. 



ORDER OF PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



FUNERAL 



OF THE 



HON. HENRY CLAY. 



The Committee of Arrangements, Pall-Bearers, and Mourn- 
ers, attended at the Naiional Hotel, the late residence of the 
deceased, on Thursday, July 1, 1852, at 11 o'clock, a. m. At 
half-past eleven the funeral procession to the Capitol was formed, 
in the followincr order : 

The Chaplains of both Houses of Congress. 
Physicians who attended the deceased. 

Committee of ArrangemerUs. 
Messrs. Hunter, Dawson, Jones of Iowa, Cooper, Bright, and 

Smith. 

Pall-Bearers. 

Messrs. Cass, Mangum, Dodge of Wisconsin, Pratt, Atchison, 
and Bell. 

Committee to attend the remains of the deceased to Kentvcky. 
Messrs. Underwood, Jones of Tennessee, Cass, Fish, Houston, 
and Stockton. 

The Family and Friends of the deceased. 

The Senators and Representatives from the State of Kentucky, 

(489) 

as mourners. 



490 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 

The Serg-eant-at-Arms of the Senate. 

The Senate of the United Slates, preceded by their President 
pro tempore, and Secretary. 

The other Officers of the Senate. 

The Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Representatives. 

The House of Representatives, preceded by their Speaker and 
Clerk. 

The other Officers of the House of Representatives. 

Judges of the United States. 

Officers of the Executive Departments. 

Officers of the Army and Navy, 

The Mayor and Corporation of Washington, and of other cities. 

Civic Associations. 

Military Companies. ' 

Citizens and Strangers. 

The procession having entered the Senate Chamber, where the 
President of the United States, the Heads of Departments, the 
Diplomatic Corps, and others were already present. 

" The President of the United States and the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives were seated with the President of the 
Senate. The body of the Senate, the representatives of State 
sovereignties, were grouped, on the two innermost semicircular 
row of chairs, around the lifeless form of their late colleague. 
The committee of arrangements, and the committee to convey 
the body to Kentucky, and the pall-bearers, with the Kentucky 
delegation in the House of Representatives, as chief moui-ners, 
and a few personal devoted friends, were also in close proximity 
to the inanimate form of the deceased. 

" The members of the House of Representatives filled the outer 
circles, except such parts as were devoted to the large diplomatic 
corps, the Cabinet of the President of the United States, the 
officers of the Ai-my and Navy, among whom were Major- General 
Scott, commander-in-chief, and Commodore Morris. With the 
Municipal Councils of the city of Washington, were the officers 
of neio-liborino- cities, and others, official and unofficial." 

The funeral service was performed by Rev. Dr. Butler, 
Chaplain to the Senate. 



s E R ]M o isr 

DELIVERED IN THE SENATE CHAMBER, JULY 1, 1852, 



ON THE OCCASION OF THE 



FUNERAL OF HON. HENRY CLAY. 



BY THE 



EEV. C. M. BUTLER, D.D, 

CHAPLAIN OF T0E SENATE. 



"How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod." — Jer. xlviii, 17. 

Before all hearts and minds in this auErust assemblao-e, the- 
vivid image of one man stands. To some aged eye he may- 
come forth, from the dim past, as he appeared in the neighbor- 
ing city of his native State, a lithe and ardent youth, full of 
promise, of ambition, and of hope. To another he may appear 
as, in a distant State, in the courts of justice, erect, high-strung, 
bold, wearing the fresh forensic laurel on his young and open 
brow. Some may see him in the earlier, and some in the larer, 
stages of his career, on this conspicuous theater of his renown ; 
and to the former he will start out on the back-ground of the 
past, as he appeared in the neighboring chamber, tall elate, im- 
passioned — with flashing eye, and suasive gesture, and clarion 
voice, an already acknowledged "Agamemnon, King of Men ;" 
and to others he will again stand in this Chamber, " the strong 
s'aff " of ihe bewildered and staggering State, and "the beauti- 
ful rod," rich wiih the blossoms of genius, and of patriotic love 

(491) 



492 OBSEQUIES OF HENKY CLAY. 

and hope, the life of youth still remaining to give anirnation, 
grace, and exhaustless vigor, to the wisdom, the experience, and 
the gravity of age. To others he may be present as he sat in 
the chamber of sickness, cheerful, majestic, gentle — his mind 
clear, his heart warm, his hope fixed on Heaven, peacefully pre- 
paring for his last great change. To the memory of the minister 
of God he appears as the penitent, humble, and peaceful Chris- 
tian, who received him with the affection of a father, and joined 
with him in solemn sacrament and prayer, with the gentleness 
of a woman, and the humility of a child. " Out of the strong 
came forth sweetness." " How is the strong staff broken, the 
beautiful rod ! " 

But not before this assembly only does the venerated image 
of the departed statesman, this day, distinctly stand. For more 
than a thousand miles — east, west, north, and south — it is 
known and remembered, that, at this place and hour, a nation's 
Representaiives assemble to do honor to him whose fame is now 
a nation's heritage. A nation's mighty heart throbs against 
this Capitol, and beats through you. In many cities banners 
droop, bells toll, cannons boom, funeieal diaperies wave. In 
crowded streets and on sounding wharves, upon steamboats and 
upon cars, in fields and in workshops, in homes, in schools, mil- 
lions of men, Avomen, and children, have their thoughts fixed 
upon this scene, and say mournfully to each other, "This is the 
hour in which, at the Capitol, the nation's Representatives are 
burying Henry Clay." Burying Henry Clay ! Bury the 
records of your country's history — bury the hearts of living 
millions — bury the mountains, the rivers, the lakes, and the 
spreading lands from sea to sea, wiih which his name is insep- 
arably associated, and even then you would not bury Henry 
Clay — for he lives in other lands, and speaks in other tongues, 
and to other times than ours. 

A great mind, a great heart, a great orator, a great career, 
have been consigned to history. She will record his rare gifts 
of deep insight, keen disciimination, clear statement, rapid com- 
bination, plain, direct, and convincing logic. She will love to 
dwell on that large, generous, magnanimous, open, forgiving 



SEKMON OF KEY. DR. BUTLER. 493 

heart. She will linger, with fond delight, on the recorded and 
traditional stories of an eloquence that was so masterful and 
stirring, because it was but himself, struggling to come forth on 
the living words — because, though the words were brave and 
strono-, and beautiful and melodious, it was felt that, behind 
them there was a soul braver, stronger, more beautiful, and more 
melodious than language could express. She will point to a 
career of statesmanship which has, to a remarkable degree, 
stamped itself on the public policy of the country, and reached, 
in beneficent practical results, the fields, the looms, the com- 
mercial marts, and the quiet homes of all the land, where his 
name Avas, with the departed fathers, and is with the living 
children, and will be, with successive generations, an honored 
household word. 

I feel, as a man, the grandeur of this career. But as an im- 
mortal, with this broken wreck of mortality before me, with 
this scene as the "end-all" of human glory, I feel that no ca- 
reer is truly great, but that of him who, whether he be illus- 
trious or obscure, lives to the future in the present, and linking 
himself to the spiritual world, draws from God the life, the rule, 
the motive, and the reward of all his labor. So would that 
great spirit which has departed say to us, could he address us 
now. So did he realize, in the calm and meditative close of life. 
I feel that I but utter the lessons which, living, were his last 
and best convictions, and which, dead, would be, could he 
speak to us his solemn admonitions, when I say that states- 
manship is then only glorious, when it is Christian; and that 
man is then only safe, and true to his duty, and his soul, when 
the life which he lives in the flesh is the life of faith in the Son 
of God. 

Great, indeed, is the privilege, and most honorable and useful 
is the career of a Christian American statesman. He perceives 
that civil liberty came from the freedom wherewith Christ made 
its early martyrs and defenders free. He recognizes it as one 
of the twelve manner of fruits on the Tree of Life, which, while 
its lower branches furnish the best nutriment of earth, hangs on 
its topmost boughs, Avhich wave in Heaven, fruits that exhilarate 



494 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAx. 

the immortals. Recoo-nizino- the State as God's institution, he 
will perceive that his own ministry is divine. Living con- 
sciously under the eye, and in the love and fear of God ; re- 
deemed by the blood of Jesus; sanctified b}^ His Spirit; loving 
his law ; he will give himself, in piivate and in public, to the 
service of his Saviour. He will not admit that he may act on 
less lofty principles in public than in private life ; and that he 
must be careful of his moral influence in the small sphere of 
home and neighborhood, but need take no heed of it when it 
stretches over continents and crosses seas. He will knoAv that 
his moral responsibility can not be divided and distributed 
amono- others. When he is told that adherence to the strictest 
moral and religious principle is incompatible with a successful ^ 

and eminent career, he will denounce the assertion as a libel on 
the venerated Fathers of the Republic — a libel on the honored 
living and the illustrious dead — a libel against a great and 
Christian nation — a libel against God himself, who has declared 
and made "godliness profitable for the life that now is." He 
will strive to make laws the transcripts of the character, and in- 
stitutions illustrations of the providence of God. He will scan 
with admiration and awe the pui'poses of God in the futuie his- 
tory of the world, in throwing open this wide Continent, from 
sea to sea, as the abode of freedom, intelligence, plenty, pros- ' 
perity, and peace ; and feel that in giving his energies with a 
patriot's love, to the welfare of his country, he is consecrating 
himself, with a Christian's zeal, to the extension and establish- 
ment of the Redeemer's kingdom. Compared with a career like 
this, which is equally open to those whose public spheie is large 
or small, how paltry are the trade of patriotism, the tricks of 
statesmanship, the rewards of successful baseness ! This hour, 
this scene, the venerated dead, the country, the Avorld, the pre- 
sent, the future, God, duly, Heaven, hell, speak trumpet-tongued 
to all in the service of their country, to beware how they lay 
polluted or unhallowed hands 

"Upon the ark 
Of her magnificent and awful cause I " 



SEKMON OF KEV. DB. BUTLKR. 495 

Such is the character of that statesmanship which alone would 
have met the full approval of the venerated dead. For the reli- 
gion which always had a place in the convictions of his mind, 
had also, within a recent period, entered into his experience, and 
seated itself in his heart. Twenty years since he wrote — "I 
am a member of no religious sect, and I am not a professor of 
relii'ion. I reo-ret that I am not. I wish that I was, and trust 
that I shall be. I have, and always have had, a profound re- 
gard for Christianity, the religion of my fathers, and for its rites, 
its usages and observances." That feeling proved that the seed 
sown by pious parents, was not dead though stifled. A few 
years since, its dormant life was re-awakened. He was baptized 
in the communion of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; and 
during his sojourn in this city, he Avas in full communion with 
Trinity Parish. 

It is since his withdrawal from the sittings of the Senate, that 
I have been made particularly acquainted with his religious 
opinions, character, and feelings. From the commencement of 
his illness he always expressed to me his persuasion that its ter- 
mination Avould be fatal. From that period until his death, it 
was my privilege to hold frequent religious services and conver- 
sations with him in his room. He avowed to me his full faith in 
tlie great leading doctrines of the Gospel — the fall and sinful- 
ness of man, the divinity of Christ, the reality and necessity 
of the Atonement, ihe need of being born again by the Spirit, 
and salvation through faith in a crucified Redeemer. His own 
personal hopes of salvation, he ever and distinctly based on 'he 
promises and the grace of Christ. Strikingly perceptible, on his 
naturally impetuous and impatient character, was the influence 
of grace in producing submission, and "a patient wailing for 
Christ," and for death. On one occasion he spoke to rae 
of the pious example of one very near and dear to hmi, as that 
which led him deeply to feel, and earnestly to seek for him- 
self, the reality and the blessedness of religion. On another 
occasion, he told me that he had been striving to form a con- 
ception of Heaven ; and lie enlarged upon the mercy of that 
provision by which our Saviour became a partaker of oui 



496 OBSEQUIES OF HENKT CLAY. 

humanity, that our hearts and hopes might fix themselves on 
him. On another occasion, when he was supposed to be very 
near his end, I expressed to him the hope that his mind and 
heart were at peace, and tliat he was able to rest with cheerful 
confidence on the promises, and in the merits of the Redeemer. 
He said, with much feeling, that he endeavored to, and trusted 
that he did, repose his salvation upon Christ; that it was too late 
for him to look at Christianiiy in the light of speculation ; that 
he had never doubted of its truth ; and that he now wished to 
throw himself upon it as a practical and blessed remedy. Very 
soon after this, I administered to him the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper. Being extremely feeble, and desirous of having 
his mind undiverted, no persons were present, but his son and 
his servant. It was a scene long to be remembered. There, in 
that still chamber, at a Aveek-day noon, the tides of life flowing 
all around us, three disciples of the Saviour, the minister of 
God, the dying statesman, and his servant, a partaker of the 
like precious faith, commemoiated their Saviour's dying love. 
He joined in the blessed sacrament with great feeling and solem- 
iiiiy, now pressing his hands together, and now spreading them 
forth, as the words of the service expressed the feelings, desires, 
supplications, confessions, and thanksgivings, of his heart. His 
eyes were dim with grateful tears, his heart was full of peace 
and love 1 After this he rallied, and again I was peimitted fre- 
quently to join with him in religious services, conversation, and 
prayer. He grew in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ. Among the books which, in connec- 
tion with the Word of God, he read most, were "Jay's Morn- 
ino- and Evening Exercises," the " Life of Dr. Chalmers," and 
"The Christian Philosoplier Triumphant in Death." His hope 
continued to the end to be, though true and real, tremulous with 
humility rather than rapturous with assurance. When he felt 
most the weariness of his protracted sufferings, it sufficed to 
su'j-ffest to him that his Heavenly Father doubtless knew, that 
after a life so long and stirring, and tempted, such a dis- 
cipline of chastening and suffering was needful to make him 



SERMON OF REV. DR. LUTLER. 497 

more meet for the inheritance of the saints — and at once words 
of meek and patient acquiescence escaped his lips. 

Exhausted nature at length gave way. On the last occasion, 
when I was permitted to oft'er a brief prayer at his bedside, his 
last words to me were that he had hope only in Christ, and that 
the pi-ayer which I had offered for his pardoning love, and his 
sanctifying grace, included every thing which the dying need. 
On the evening previous to his departure, sitting for an hour in 
silence by his side, I could not but realize, when I heard him, 
in the slight wanderings of his mind to other days, and other 
scenes, murmuring the words, " 3fy mothei' / Mother! Mother!" 
and saying "My dear wife!" as if she were present, and fre- 
quently uttering aloud, as if in response to some silent Litany 
of the soul, the simple prayer, " Lord have mercy upon me !" — 
I could not but realize then, and rejoice to think how near was 
the blessed reunion of his weary heart with the loved dead, and 
with lier — Our dear Lord gently smooth her passage to the 
tomb ! — who must soon follow him to his rest — whose spirits 
even then seemed to visit, and to cheer his memory and 
his hope. Gently he breathed his soul away into the spirit 
world. 

"How blest the righteous when they die! 
When holy souls i-etire to rest, 
How mildly beams the closing eye. 

How gently heaves the expiring breast I 

" So fades the summer cloud away, 

So sinks tiie gale when storms are o'er. 
So gently shuts the eye of day. 
So dies the wave upon the shore !" 

Be it ours to follow him, in the same humble and submissive 
faith, to Heaven. Could he speak to us the counsels of his 
latest human, and his present Heavenly, experience, sure I am 
that he would not only admonish us to cling to the Saviour, in 
sickness and in death, but abjure us not to delay to act upon 
our first convictions, that we might give our best powers and 
42 



498 OBSEQUIES OF HENKT CLAY. 

fullest influence to God, and go to the grave with a hope, unshad- 
owed by the long worldliness of the past, or by the films of fear 
and doubt restino- over the future. 

The strong staff is broken, and the beautiful rod is despoiled 
of its grace and bloom ; but in the light of the eternal promises, 
and by the power of Christ's resurrection, we joyfully anticipate 
the prospect of seeing that broken staff erect, and that beautiful 
rod clothed with celestial grace, and blossoming with undying 
life and blessedness in the Paradise of God. 



At the conclusion of the service, the corpse was placed in the 
Rotunda, Avhere it remained until half past three o'clock, p. m., 
when it was removed, in charge of the Committee of Arrange- 
ments and Pall-Bearers, to the Railroad Depot, and confided to 
the Committee appointed to accompany it to Kentucky. 

* Tlie funeral cortege appointed by the Senate of the United 
States, to accompany the remains of Mr. Clay from Washington 
to Lexington, rested for the night at Baliimore, where the pro- 
foundest sorrow reigned, and every befitting honor was rendered 
to the memory of the illustrious deceased, by the civic author- 
ities, by the military, and by all ranks of people. The next 
morning the cortege, with their charge, took the cars for Phila- 
delphia, accompanied to the railroad depot by a civic and mili- 
tary procession. Crowds of sorrowing people, of all ages, and 
both sexes, flocked to the villages and towns on the road, to 
express their sympathy and grief. At Wilmington, Delaware, 
the concourse was great ; and they were gratified by being per- 
mitted to approach and see the coffin of the statesman who had 
been so much loved and honored in the State of Delaware. The 
sun was down, and the shades of night came over the city of 
Philadelphia, before the cortege arrived. But the preparations 
for the reception were on the largest scale, and the procession to 
the old State House, where, in the Hall of Independence, the 
corpse was deposited for the night, under a guard of honor, was 
of the most imposing and solemn character. It is needless to 

» Colton's Last Seven Years. 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 499 

say, that the great heart of Philadelphia was moved with sorrow 
as never before. Ever honoi'ed there while living, he was wept 
there by (ens of thousands as he was borne through their midst 
in his coffin. Afier affording an opportunity, as far as possible, 
for tlie citizens, early in the morning of Saturday, to walk around 
the remains of one so much beloved, a committee from Philadel- 
phia took charge of the body, and, being escorted to the river by 
a military and civic procession, moved forward by steamboat and 
railway, to meet a committee from New York, wlio received the 
eacred trust, and took it in charge, until, in the evening, it was 
deposited in the Governor's room at the City Hall, there to rest 
over the Sabbath, under a guard of honor. Even the city of 
New York was hushed to solemn silence on this mournful occa- 
sion ; and it was computed that a hundred thousand persons 
visited the Governor's room on Saturday evening and Sunday, 
without the slightest disorder, and all in solemn silence. We 
need not say, that the public demonstrations were all suited to 
the occasion ; but the public funeral at New York was not sol- 
emnized until the 20th of July, which was the greatest and most 
solemn pageant of the kind ever witnessed in that city. 

Early on Monday morning the remains of Mr. Clay were 
removed from the City Hall to the steamboat for Albany, which 
"were saluted on the passage by half-mast flags, and by other 
symbols, from every craft on the river, and by booming guns 
from every village and town on the Hudson, betAveen New York 
and Albany. The city of Albany had the honor of receiving 
and guarding the remains of the great statesman for the night, 
and she discharged the duty in a manner worthy of herself. 
Early in the morning the cortege moved on for 'Buffalo, stopping 
at the principal towns and villages to gratify the assembled mul- 
titudes, and to permit them to manifest their part of the deep and 
universal sorrow. They were received in Buffalo by torchlight, 
and there, too, was enacted another sad and funeral pageant 
suited to the occasion. So at Cleveland, so at Columbus, so at 
Cincinnati, and so on the whole line of travel, until the cortege 
arrived at Louisville, and landed tlie remains of Henry Clat 
on the soil of Kentucky, his adopted State, which had ever 



500 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 

deli •-'•li ted to honor him, and which, as he himself once said, had 
"carried him aloft in her noble arms, as well when fortune 
frowned as when she smiled." Though the grief of the nation 
was sincere, that of Kentucky was the sorrow of a parent for the 
loss of a son. She was entitled to the first place in the long 
procession ; and we are not surprised to see her tears flow more 
copiously, and her symbols of mourning more expressive. So 
was it at Louisville, so was it at Frankfort, the capital of the 
State, and so was it on the whole line of the railway to Lexing- 
ton, where the cortege arrived, at sunset, on Friday, the 9th 
of July. 

As far as the sicrht could reach, there was one sea of heads. 
The mission of the Senate Committee was ended, and Mr. Un- 
derwwod addressed the Chairman of the Committee of Lexing- 
ton, as follows : 

" Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the Lexington Committee : 
"Mr. Clay desired to be buried in the cemetery of your city. 
I made known his wish to the Senate, after he was dead. Tliat 
body, in consideration of the respect entertained for him, and his 
lono- and eminent public services, appointed a committee of six 
senators, to attend his remains to this place. My relations to 
Mr. Clay, as his colleague, and as the mover of the resolution, 
induced the President of the Senate to appoint me the chairman 
of the committee. The other gentlemen comprising the com- 
mittee are distinguished, all of them, for eminent civil services, 
each havina- been the executive head of a State or Territory, and 
some of them no less distinguished for brilliant military achieve- 
ments. I can not permit this occasion to pass without an 
expression of my gratitude to each member of the Senate's 
Committee. They have, to testify their personal respect and 
appreciation of the character, private and public, of Mr. Clay, 
left their seats in the Senate, for a time, and honored his remains 
by conducting them to their last resting-place. I am sure that 
you, gentlemen of the Lexington Committee, and the people of 
Kentucky, will ever bear my associates in grateful remembrance. 
" Our jmirnoy, since we left Washington, has been a continued 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 501 

procession. Everywhere the people have pressed forward to 
manifest their feelings toward the illustrious dead. Delegates 
from cities, towns, and villages, have waited on us. The pure 
and the lovely, the mothers and daughters of the land, as we 
passed, covered the coffin with garlands of flowers, and bedewed 
it with tears. It has been no triumphal procession in honor of a 
living man, stimulated by hopes of reward. It has been the 
voluntary tribute of a free and grateful people to the glorious 
dead. We have brought with us, to witness the last sad cere- 
mony, a delegation from the Clay Association of the city of New 
York, and delegations from the cities of Cincinnati and Dayton, 
in Ohio. Much as we have seen on our way, it is small com- 
pared with the great movement of popular sympathy and admira- 
tion Avhieh everywhere burst forth in honor of the departed states- 
man. The rivulets we have witnessed are concentrating ; and 
in their union will form the ocean tide that shall lave the base 
of the pyi-amid of Mr. Clay's fame forever. 

"Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Lexington Committee, 
I have but one remaining duty to perform, and that is, to deliver 
to you, the neighbors and friends of Mr. Clay, when living, his 
dead body for interment. From my acquaintance with your 
characters, and especially with your Chairman, who was my 
schoolmate in boyhood, my associate in the Legislature in early 
manhood, and afterward a co-laborer, for many years, on the 
bench of the Appellate Court, I know that you will do all that 
duty and propriety require, in burying him, whose last great 
services to his country were performed from Christian motives, 
without hopes of office or earthly reward." 

As he closed, the Chairman of the Lexington Committee, 
Chief Justice Robertson, sharing the emotions of all present, and 
himself deeply affected, replied : 

"Senator Underwood, Chairman, and Associate Senators of 
the Committee of Conveyance : 

" Here, your long and mournful cortege, at last ends, — your 
melancholy mission is now fulfilled, — and, this solemn moment, 



502 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 

you dissolve forever your official connection with your late dis- 
tinguished colleague of Kentucky. 

"With mingled emotions of sorrow and gratitude, we receive 
from your hands, into the arms of his devoted State and the 
bosom of his beloved city, all that now remains on earth of 
Henry Clay. Having attained, with signal honor, the patri- 
archal age of seventy-six, and hallowed his setting sun by the 
crowning act of his eventful drama, a wise and benevolent Provi- 
dence has seen fit to close his pilgrimage, and to allow him to 
act, — as we trust he was prepared to act, — a still nobler and 
better part in a purer world, where life is deathless. This was, 
doubtless, best for him, and, in the inscrutable dispensations of a 
benignant Almighty, best for his country. Still, it is but natural 
that his countrymen, and his neighbors especially, should feel 
and exhibit sorrow at the loss of a citizen so useful, so eminent, 
and so loved. And not as his associates only, but as Ken- 
tuckians and Americans, we, of Lexington and Fayette, feel 
grateful for the unexampled manifestations of respect for his 
memory, to which you have so eloquently alluded, as having 
everywhere graced the more than triumphal procession of his 
dead body homeward from the national capital, where, in the 
public service, he fell with his armor on and untarnished. We 
feel, Mr. Chairman, especially grateful to yourself and your col- 
leagues here present, for the honor of your kind accompaniment 
of your precious deposit to his last home. Equally divided in 
your party names, equally the personal friends of the deceased, 
equally sympathizing with a whole nation in the Providential 
bereavement, and all distinguished for your public services and 
the confidence of constituents, — you were peculiarly suited to 
the sacred trust of escorting his remains to the spot chosen by 
himself for their repose. Having performed that solemn service 
in a manner creditable to yourselves and honorable to his mem- 
ory, Kentucky thanks you for your patriotic magnanimity. And 
allow me, as her organ on this valedictory occasion, to express 
for her, as well as for myself and committee, the hope that your 
last days may be far distant, and that, come when they may, as 
tliey certainly must come, sooner or later, to all of you, t)ie 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 503 

death of each of you may deserve to be honored by the grateful 
outpou rings of national respect which signalize the death of our 
universally lamented Clay. 

" Unlike Burke, he never 'gave up to the party w^hatwas meant 
for mankind.' His intrepid nationality, his lofty patriotism, and 
his comprehensive phiianthn)py, illusti'ated by his country's 
annals for half a century, magnified him among statesmen, and 
endeared liim to all classes, and ages, and sexes of his country- 
men. And, therefore, his name, like Washington's, will belong 
to no party, or section, or lime. 

"Your kind allusion, Mr. Chairman, to reminiscences of our 
personal associations is cordially reciprocated, — the longer we 
have known, the more we have respected each other. Be assured 
that the duty you have devolved on our committee shall be faith- 
fully performed. The body you commit to us shall be properly 
interred in a spot of its mother earth, which, as 'the grave 
OF Clay,' will be more and more consecrated by time to the 
affections of mankind. 

" How different, however, would have been the feelings of us 
all, if, instead of the pulseless, speechless, breathless Clay, now 
in cold and solemn silence before us, you had brought with you 
to his family and neighbors, the living man, in all the majesty 
of his transcendent moral power, as we once knew, and often 
saw and heard him. But with becoming resignation, we bow to 
a dispensation which was doubtless as Avise and beneficent as it 
was melancholy and inevitable. 

" To the accompanying committees from New York, Dayton, 
and Cincinnati, we tender our profound acknowledgments for 
their voluntary sacrifice of time and comfort to honor the obse- 
quies of our illustrious countryman. 

" In the sacred and august presence of the illustrious dead, 
were a eulogistic speech befitting the occasion, it could not be 
made by me. I could not thus speak over the dead body of 
Henuy Clay. Kentucky expects not me, nor any other of her 
sons, to speak his eulogy now, if ever. She would leave that 
grateful task to other States and to other times. His name needs 
not our panegyric. The carver of his own fortune, the founder 



504: OBSEQUIES OF IIENEY CLAY. 

of his own name ; with his own hands he has built his own 
monument, and with his own tongue and his own pen he has 
stereotyped his autobiog-raphy. With liopeful tiust his maternal 
Commonwealth consigns his fame to the justice of history and to 
the judgment of ages to come. His ashes he bequeathed to her, 
and they will rest in her bosom until the judgment day ; his 
fame will descend, as the common heritage of his country, to 
every citizen of that Union, of which he was thrice the trium- 
phant cliampion, and whose genius and value are so beautifully 
illustrated by his model life. 

" But, thouo-h we feel assured that his renown will survive the 
ruins of the Capitol he so long and so admirably graced, yet 
Kentucky will rear to his memory a magnificent mausoleum, — 
a votive monument, — to maik the spot where his relics shall 
sleep, and to testify to succeeding generations, that our Republic, 
however unjust it may too often be to living merit, will ever 
cherish a grateful remembrance of the dead patriot, who dedi- 
cated his life to his country, and with rare ability, heroic firm- 
ness, and self-sacrificing constancy, devoted his talents and his 
time to the cause of Patriotism, of Liberty, and of Truth." 



The following somewhat glowing account of what occurred, 
from the arrival of the cortege at Lexington to the commence- 
ment of the funeral discourse, we borrow from the hand of 
an eye-witness : 

At the close of this address, the procession was formed, 
headed by a cavalcade of horsemen, preceding the hearse, which 
was folloAved by the Senate Committee, and the deputation from 
New York, in carriages, as mourners ; the Clay Guard, of Cin- 
cinnati ; the deputation of fourteen, from Dayton, Ohio ; the 
seventy-six, from Louisville, and the citizens in the rear, — their 
march being under the funeral arches, and through (he somber 
street, — lined by the silent multitude, — toward that place known 
to every inhabilaiit of the Republic, and throughout the civilized 
world, as (lio home of the great commoiifr. 

Who can littinoly speak of llie agonized group awailing at 






OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 605 

Ashland, the arrival of the remains of him who had been hus- 
band, father, and the beloved master? That wife, who, for 

fifty-three years and upward, had been his faithful partner, 

sharer of his triumphs and of his many trials; whose saint-like 
virtues had secured to her the affection and veneration of all 
classes in the place where she was so well known ; herself more 
than threescore years a sojourner on earth, having survived her 
parents and all her daughters, with gallant sons moldering in the 
tomb, bending beneath the weight of this, her speechless sorrow ; 
bowing with years, and broken in health, amid surviving chil- 
dren, grandchildren, and kindred ; and gathering around them, 
the old and young of their servants, awaited there the remains 
of her husband. 

Guided by the many torches, the train moved through the 
grounds designed and laid out under his supervision. It was in 
truth a solemn, — a holy scene. Under the dark shadows of the 
spreading grove, treading on a lawn where the wild flower, the 
myrtle, and the laurel were strangely mingled, they bore him 
toward that portal which had last seen him depart near the 
close of the preceding year, impelled again to cross the moun- 
tains, and to tread the Halls of Congress, because there had 
come to him a rumor of a threatened resumption of sectional 
controversies. ****** 

They gently laid him beneath his own roof, and in that room 
where he had, for half a century, received the homage of count- 
less thousands, representing all classes and callings, — the gifted 
and the great of either sex, — coming from every country, and 
traveling from all directions, to Lexington, that they might thus, 
in person, pay tribute to the worth, the genius, the patriotism, 
and surpassing excellence of the public and private character of 
the illustrious host. 

Beside the bier were gathered his sons, some of his grandsons, 
and nephews ; behind these the family servants. * * * 

The Clay Guard, of Cincinnati, solicited the honor of watching 
over his remaims — this, the last night before sepulture. * * 

In the deep hours of the night, — alone with him and her 
God, — the widow knelt beside her husband's corpse. For that 
43 



506 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 

hour it was directed that she should not be disturbed. In that 
hour what other heart knew her thronging memories of joys and 
sorrows, save the spirit of the dead she longed to join. * * 
They had commenced together the struggles of life. Together 
they had planned their home, — together they had arranged their 
grounds, and with their own hands had planted the young 
shoots of what now were the stately trees of Ashland. • * 
Life had opened to them full of bright hope and promise that 
belong to youth, energy, and commanding abilities. She had 
seen him leap into a dazzling greatness, reflecting honor and 
dignity upon his native land, lifting his young State to the front 
rank of her compeers, and conferring prosperity upon his country 
and her citizens, while he gave stability and permanence to the 
institutions and laws of the land, and cemented together the 
Union, as he ardently desired, prayed for, and labored cease- 
lessly to accomplish, from end to end, — from center to cir- 
cumference. * * There were born to them, in this 
happy home, eleven children — six daughters and five sons. 
Where are they now ? No daughter survived, on whose breast 
that aged head could rest. Four sons only remained, and one 
a lunatic. ****** 

In that dread hour, through her thronging mind passed the 
remembrance of a lifetime. She had the sympathy and regard 
of millions, and in that watch of the dead, she was accompanied 
by the thoughts of countless thousands, who remembered what 
event the morrow was to commemorate in history. * * * 

Long before the day had fairly broke (Saturday, July 10), 
every avenue of approach to the city was crowded by those who 
came to Lexinffton to render their last tribute to him who had 
always, living, received their measureless devotion. * * It 
was computed that nearly one hundred thousand persons, of 
all classes and sexes, had come together on that memorable 
occasion. ♦**»•* 

At an hearly hour, those appointed to meet at Ashland, had 
gathered together within the house : the pall-bearers, his oldest 
and most distinguished fiiends in Kentucky, (he Senate Com- 
mittee, and the deputation fioin New York, his family and 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 507 

kindred. In front were arranged the deputations from other 
States, from ihe Masonic fraternity, and a dense crowd were in 
a semicircular array before the porch. Upon a bier, cush- 
ioned with flowers, and immediately in front of the door, they 
laid the iron coffin that inclosed the body of Henry Clay. 
Upon it shone a clear, cloudless sun. Upon the breast of 
it reposed the civic wreaths, while strewed around were the 
floral offierings of every principal place from the national Capitol 
to the sxi'ave. ****** 

From Washington to the tomb was one votive off"ering of 
wreaths of oak, immortelles, the cypress, the ivy, and the 
laurel, — bouquets of flowers of every species, and in wondrous 
profusion. It was no unfrequent sight to witness youth and 
beauty bend and press their lips upon his sable shroud. Old 
men would pause beside his iron case, and burst into uncon- 
trollable sobs. Early manhood and middle age, that had banked 
their hopes in him, and clung to him as their chieftain and their 
leader, to the last moment resisting the assured certainty that 
they were no more to listen to that silver voice, nor hang uplon 
its tones, with speechless woe at length realized, that for the 
future, his memory and the preservation of his patriotic princi- 
ples were their future charge. 

His late colleao-ues in the Senate, — that reverend band of 
chosen intimates, who were honored as his pall-bearers, the 
New York delegation, and his family kindred, grouped near the 
porch and within his dwelling ; on the porch stood the minister 
of God, at whose hand he had received the sacrament, when last 
he was alive, within those halls, — the same minister who had 
baptized him, his children that were left to him, and the children 
of his dead son. Colonel Clay,— while all around the eye rested 
on his near friends and neighbors, who were there assembled, 
and yet without these, lines of people from many States, and the 
far-ofi" counties of his own. 

The funeral services were performed by the Rev. Edward F. 
Berkley, Rector of Christ Church, Lexington, who delivered the 
followino- address before the procession moved from Ashland: 



508 obsequies of henry clay. 

" Mt Friends : 

" A nation's griefs are bursting forth at the fall of one of her 
noblest sons. 

" A miohtv man in wisdom, — in intellect, — in truth, — lies in 
our presence to-day, insensible, inanimate and cold. The heart 
which once beat with a pure and lofty patriotism, — shall beat no 
more. The renowned statesman, who was learned in the laws 
of diplomacy and government, will never again give his counsel 
in aftairs of Slate. And the voice which was ever raised in 
behalf of truth and liberty, is silenced forever ! 

" Indulge me in a remark or two, while I speak of him ; and 
in consideration of the personal comfort of this immense assem- 
bly, my words shall be few. 

" This is neither a proper place nor a fit occasion to dwell on 
the peculiar and striking incidents of his public life; and I 
mean to say a few words only of his character as viewed in con- 
nection with relio-ion. 

O 

"We have not come here to weave a garland of praises for the 
brow of the fallen statesman, nor to throw the incense of adula- 
tion upon the urn which incloses his ashes ; but we have come 
here to pay the last offices of respect and affection to a neigh- 
bor and a friend ; and to draw, from the visitation which has 
stricken down one of the mightiest of our mighty men, such 
lessons as are calculated to teach us ' what shadows we are, and 
what shadows we pursue.' 

" Our venerated friend has been before the public eye for half 
a century ; and for nearly the whole of that period in the occu- 
pancy of high public places. He has done the State great 
service. He combined in his character such elements as could 
make him no other man than he was, except, that he might have 
been as groat a soldier as he was a statesman and orator. But 
the crowning excellence of all his virtues, was this — he was a 
Christian. 

"As he was eminently open, candid, and honest, in his long 
public career, so was he deeply sincere in his adoption, as the 
rule of his life, of the principles of our holy religion. 

"Although the suns of seventy summers had shone down 



i 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 509 

upon liim before he made a public profession of Christ, yet, when 
he did make it, he did it, not mechanically, and as a matter of 
course, because he was an old man, — he did it heartily, and 
upon conviction, because he felt himself to be a sinner, and 
because he felt the need of a Saviour ! And when he came to 
make inquiry. What shall I do ? and it was told him what he 
ought to do, — he did it gladly, — he made haste to fulfill the pur- 
poses of his heart. And his great mind being brought to the 
investigation of the pure and simple doctrines of the Cross, new 
beauties, in a new world broke in upon him, of the existence 
of which, to their full extent, he had never dreamed before. 
And I know, that in times when he lay under the hand of dis- 
ease, and of great bodily infirmity, here at home, he clung 
to those doctrines, by a lively faith, as the highest consolation 
of his soul. 

"Although he had his Church preferences, yet the power and 
influence of the teachings of Christianity, rightly understood, 
gave rise to sympathies in his nature, which extended to all 
Christian people. 

" Surrounded as he was, by the allurements and fascination 
of a high public place, nevertheless, he strove to walk in the 
pure and perfect way ; and by a steady maintenance of the 
principles which bound him to religion and to God, — like the 
eao-le, with his eye fixed upon the sun, his course was onward 
and upward 1 

"And these principles, which our illustrious friend found so 
comfortino- and consoling in life, did not forsake him when he 
had nothing else on earth to cling to, 

" In reference to some of his last hours, a lady, connected 
with him by family, who recently spfent several days at his bed- 
side, writes : ' He is longing to be gone, and said something of 
this kind to me, which caused me to ask him if he did not feel 
perfectly willing to wait until the Almighty called him. He 
replied, 0, my dear child, do not misunderstand me, — I suppli- 
cate Him continually for patience to do so. I am ready to go,-— 
no, not 1-eady, but willing. We are none of us ready. We can 
not trust in our own merits, but must look to Him entirely' 



f 



510 OBSEQUIES OF HENKT CLAY. 

" The writer adds : ' He is the most gentle, patient, and affec- 
tionate sick person I almost ever saw, — thanks you for every 
thing, and is as little trouble as he can possibly be.' 

" And this is the power of religion upon a vigorous and dis- 
criminating mind, — a mind fully capable of meeting all the great 
em-ergencies which have ever arisen in its collisions with other 
great minds, at the bar, in the Senate, and in the forum. 

" And Oh ! the recollection to mourning friends, and to a 
mourning country, is of the most consoling interest, that, as in 
his life, by his genius and wisdom, he threw light, and peace, 
and blessing upon his country, so, in his death, the glorious 
Giver of grace and wisdom threw light, and peace, and blessing 
upon him, — borne upward, as he was, by the aspirations to 
heaven, of a million hearts. 

"But his earthly career is run. Full of age and full of 
honors, he goes down to earth, to ashes, and to dust. A man 
of extraordinary genius ; a man of the highest practical wis- 
dom, — possessing the largest powers of true eloquence, — a pure 
patriot, a sincere Christian, and a friend of his race. 

" His friends will grieve for him, — the Church has lost him, — 
his country will bewail him, — and hereafter, when the passing 
traveler shall come to Ashland, and look for the bland, agreeable, 
and hospitable host, he will not find him here! His aged wife, 
who, for more than fifty years, has grieved with him in his 
sorrows, and rejoiced with him in his public success, shall go 
down unto the grave, mourning ; and men in every civilized 
nation of the earth will shed a tear at the foil of such a man. 
But he has gone to a brighter and a better world ; while this 
memorial shall remain of him here, that he was as simple and 
sincere in his religion, as Tie was great in wisdom and mighty 
in intellect. 

" God is no respecter of persons. Neither genius, nor wis- 
dom, nor power, nor greatness can avert the fatal darts which 
fly thick and fast around us. If public services of the highest 
value, a fair fame which reaches to the utmost habllations of 
civilized man, and integrity as stern as steel, could have done 
this, a nation had not been in tears to-dav. 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 511 

" But the great and the humble, — the useful and the use- 
less, — the learned and the ignorant, — the mighty and the mean, — 
the public and the private man, — must all, alike, lie down in the 
cold chambers of the grave ! Death is the common leveler oj 
men and of nations. Temples and monuments, which have been 
erected to perpetuate the achievements of statesmen and of heroes 
in past ages, have been ruined and robbed of their grandeur by 
the insatiate tooth of time, — not a vestige remains of the glory 
that once covered the earth, and not a stone to mark the spot 
where the master of the world was laid. 

" And this is the end of man ! This the obscurity and oblivion 
to which he shall come at last ! But his end may be worse than 
this, if he has no hope in the blessed Saviour's death. For, 
whoever confides in the w^orld for the bestowment of true hap- 
piness, — whoever trusts to its gains, its pleasures, or its honors, 
to bring him peace at the last, — will find himself miserably im- 
posed upon, and grievously deluded. He will find that this 
misplaced confidence will involve l^im in ruin, as inevitable as 
it will be eternal ! 

" ' Lean not on earth ! 'twill pierce thee to the heart; — 
A broken reed at best, but oft a spear ! 
On its sharp point, peace bleeds and hope expires.' 

" If we aspire to a true, a deathless, immortality, let us not 
seek it in the praises of men, or in the enrollment of our name 
upon the page of history ; for these all shall perish ! But let us 
seek, by obedience to God, and a recognition of the claims of 
religion, to have our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life. 
This, and this only, will guarantee an immortality as imperish- 
able as the heavens, and as certain as the Life of God. 

"The observation is almost universal, that 'all men think all 
n:en mortal but themselves.' And yet there is nothing more 
surely reserved for us in the future than disease and dissolution. 
And these, too, may, and very often do, come when we are least 
expecting a disturbance of our plans. 

" The statesman falls with plans of future glory yet unaccom- 
plished : the poet expires in the midst of his song, and the magic 



512 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 

of his muse lingers on his dying lips; the sculptor drops 
his chisel before he has taught the marble to breathe, — and 
the painter his pencil, while the living figures on his can- 
vass are yet unfinished ; the sword slips from the hand of the 
warrior before the battle is won ; and the orator is silenced while 
the words of wisdom are yet dropping in sweetest accents from 
liis lips. 

" ' I said, Ye are gods, and children of the Most High, but ye 
shall die like men.' 

"No consideration can purchase a moment's respite, when 
the decree shall go forth, ' This night thy soul shall be required 
of thee !' whether it be uttered at the doors of the stately man- 
sion, or at the cot of the lowly poor. And not to be wisely and 
well prepared to hear this summons is destructive of the best 
interests of the soul. Happy they who have made a friend in 
God. Happy they who have done, and they who do, this in 
early life, — the failing of which, in his case, our revered friend 
80 often himself regi-etted, — thrice happy they in whom great- 
ness and goodness meet together. Imperishable joys shall be 
awarded to them. They shall shine as stars in the fii-mament 
forever and ever. In each successive generation their ' memory 
shall be blessed,' and their 'name be had in everlasting remem- 
brance;' and, 'their conflicts o'er, their labors done,' the ran- 
somed spirit shall escape from the prison that confines it to the 
earth, and the King of kings shall bind upon their victorious 
brow wreaths of unfading glory, in that blessed place, 

'"Where pain, and weariness, and sorrow cease. 
And cloudless sunshine fills the land of peace.' 

" Our great friend and countryman is dead ! He has no more 
connection wiili (lie living world, and we are about to bear his 
honored remains to the beautiful spot where our own dead lie, 
and around which our memories love to linger. What to him, 
I ask you, are now the policy or the politics of the country? 
What to him, now, are (he nice points upon which turns the 
honor of the Slate? What to him, now, is the extension of 
empire? — thf ri^^o or fall nf nations? — the dethronement or the 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 513 

establishment of kings? His work is done, and well done. 
As it is with him, so shall it shortly be with every one of 
us. Then, 

" ' So live, that ■when thy sumrnons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan that moves 
To the pale realms of shade where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death — 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon ; but sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one -who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.' 

"One word more. The distinguished subject of our present 
attention has fallen a martyr to his country. The cause of his 
sickness and his death orioinated in his last o-reat efforts in 

o o 

securing the passage, through Congress, of certain measures, 
known as The Compromise. In more senses than one may he 
receive the heavenly welcome, 'Well done, good and faithful 
servant.' His love of country, — his enthusiasm in any cause 
in which her interests were involved, — his great and singular 
powers, — his wonderful and controlling influence over even 
great minds, marked him as the man of the age, and adapted 
him, in a peculiar manner, to act and to lead in grave matters 
of Government. 

" And if, in the future, any one section of this great Republic 
should be arrayed in hostility against another ; and any cruel 
hand shall be uplifted to sever the bonds which unite us together 
as a common people, — the Genius of Liberty shall come down in 
anguish and in tears, and throwing herself prostrate before his 
tomb, implore the Mighty Ruler of nations, — for the preserva- 
tion of our institutions, and the protection of our liberty and of 
our Union, — to raise up from his ashes, another Clay." 



"The marshals of the day then foimed the long procession, 
which moved from Ashland, through Lexington, to tlie Ceme- 
tery at the north of the city, where were deposited the remains of 
Henrv Clat, to rest until the morning of the resurrection. 



514 OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY 

It is suitable that some sentiment, — and not a little, — should. 
be manifested in the community, at the exit from the world of so 
remarkable a man as HENRr Clay. It is not every country nor 
every age that can boast of such a character. Great men there 
have been in this country and in others, beside Mr. Clay ; but 
every man has his own peculiar mold. The mold of Mr. Clay's 
character was perfectly peculiar. We do not remember to hav^ 
Been or read of any thing like it in all history. It was both 
plastic and elastic, — plastic as being susceptible of influence by 
every touch of the world around, and elastic as having internal 
springs which responded to every touch from without. And 
there was a basis of goodness, which was very sure to make 
those springs act in a right direction. But for this basis, the 
other two attributes which we have named might be productive 
of the most pernicious results, — might even be diabolical. These 
elements, — the last and first two, — are the triune constitution 
of character ; but a healthy morale is the most important of the 
three. Doubtless, Mr. Clay had his sportive or impulsive 
springs of character, which bounded into acts, in his childhood, 
in his youth; and in his riper years, for which he might be 
Borry, and which, perhaps, would sometimes give pain to others. 
"^But the deep and strong power of natural goodness would restore 
him to its corrective influence. This goodness, lying at the bot- 
tom of a man's heart, prompting its impulses, controlling his 
conduct, and imparting its character to his deportment, was 
strikingly exemplified in Mr. Clay. It is a basis of character 
which has many important bearings, and produces important 
results. If a man is sympathetic, it proceeds from this ; and 
sympathy branches out into innumerable forms, according to the 
nature of the object by which it is challenged. It may be pity 
for those in want or distress ; it may be love of kindred, or love 
of country; it maybe exhilaration with the joyful, or hilarity 
with the mirthful ; it responds, in short, to all possible relations 
of the social state. It mounts even higher, spreads out into a 
larger sphere, when the heai't is touched by the grace of God ; 
for then it expands to a sympathy witli a kingdom which is not 
of this world, and embraces not only all on earth, but all in 



OBSEQUIES OF HENRY CLAY. 51 5 

heaven, and allies itself to Him who sits upon the throne of 
heaven. We have had evidence that Mr. Clay, especially in the 
latter years of his life, felt the power of this more holy sympathy, 
and enjoyed its higher and holier satisfactions. 

But the distinguishing characteristic by which he has been 
longest and best known, and which has procured for him an 
ever-during fame, was his love of country, and his sympathy 
with those rights of man which are most essential to the perfec- 
tion of the social state in its organized forms. In this wide and 
deep current flowed the great body of his affections, until they 
swept over the land of his birth, and reached all of human kind, 
far and near, civilized and barbarian. He was a Philanthropist 
in the highest, purest, and most comprehensive sense of the 
term ; and, to crown all, he was a Christian." 



HENRY CLAY. 

BT OKOROK D. PRKNTICK. 

With voice and mien of stem control 

He stood among the great and proud, 
• And words of fire burst from his soul 

Like lightnings from the tempest-cloud; 
His high and deathless themes were crowned 

With glory of his genius born. 
And gloom and ruin darkly frowned 

Where fell his bolts of wrath and scom. 

But he is gone — the free, the bold — 

The champion of his country's right; 
His burning eye is dim and cold, 

And mnip hia voice of conscious might, 
Oh no! not umie — nis stirring call 

Can starde tyrants on their thrones, 
And on the hearts of nations fall 

More awful than liis living tones, 



MC LINES BY GEORGE D. PRENTICE. 

The impulse that his spirit gave 

To human thought's wild, stormy sea, 
"Will heave and thrill through every -wave 

Of that great dc-ep eternally. 
And the all-circling atmosi)here. 

With which is blent his breath of flame, 
"Will sound, with cadence deep and clear, 

In storm and calm, his voice and name. 

His words that, like a bugle blast, 

Erst rang along the Grecian shore, 
And o'er the hoary Andes passed. 

Will still ring on forevermore. 
Great Liberty will catch the sounds. 

And start to newer, brighter life, 
And summon from Earth's utmost bound 

Her children to the glorious strife 

Unnumbered pilgrims o'er the ware. 

In the far ages yet to be. 
Will come to kneel beside his grave. 

And hail him prophet of the free. 
'Tis holier ground, that lowly bed 

In which his moldering form is laid. 
Than fields where Liberty has bled 

Beside her broken battle-blade. 

Who now, in danger's fearful hour. 

When all around is wild and dark, 
Shall guard with voice and arm of power. 

Our freedom's consecrated ark? 
With stricken hearts. Oh God, to Thee, 

Beneath whose feet the stars are dust^ 
We bow, and ask that thou wilt be 

Through every ill our stay and trust. 



THE K N n 



H'^45 89 



0' 



p^VW X.KX4 >0''>X>< 



'^ 









'O • ^ 



.^ , O * « 




<-** 



.'^ •VL** -^^ 



'o . . • 



y 







V >^ 




^^ 



















«5^^ 



• •0 



'''>rv<i^' 






•-^^.^ 



r.0 W 



1 ••. 







v"\i 



' ^^'^^v^V • 











* .'aVaV ^. .* .',3^'. \/ ,^, t,^y 








« 



<v 







« a o 



o 







* ^ 

* 









HECKMAN 

BINDERY INC. 



^JUN 89 

S^^r N. MANCHESTER 
'^'"^ INDIANA 46962 



y ^ ••-• <v^ .. <V ••• 








